ClearPier's Solavid Division Heads to Barcelona for MWC 2017

Mobile World Congress is happening February 27-March 2 this year in Barcelona! We’re happy to announce that ClearPier’s Solavid Division will be attending.

The mobile industry continues to be characterised by high levels of growth and opportunity, and as the industry becomes more dynamic, the opportunities within it increase in equal amount, as do the challenges. In 2017, the Mobile World Congress conference programme will provide an essential, in-depth coverage of the contemporary and future mobile industry, highlighting specific areas of growth and opportunity.

ClearPier’s Jignesh Shah, CTO, Theo Terris, CEO of Solavid by ClearPier, and Amir Keren, Head of Video at Solavid, by ClearPier will all be in attendance.

If you’re an advertiser or publisher and will be at Mobile World Congress and want to learn more about ClearPier’s video solution, schedule a meeting with us now!
Email video@clearpier.com.

We hope to see you there!

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by Jenny Duong

3 Key Takeaways from Digiday Publishing Summit 2016 in Key Biscayne

Digiday Publishing Summit Addresses the Current State of Digital Publishing

Earlier last week, over 400 leading publishing executives and tech providers gathered in Key Biscayne, Florida, for the Digiday Publishing Summit. The conference featured 38 speaking sessions by a diversity of industry leaders, with over 170 publisher VIPs in attendance.

Our team conferencing it up at #DigidayDPS #ClearPier @jaypkim6 @gage_mair @ben.mair @digiday @digidayevents

A photo posted by ClearPier (@clearpier) on

Throughout the three days of networking, sessions, meetings, and social events there was a genuine community feel unified by everyone’s sincere drive to improve the digital publishing experience. Conversations centered on four main hurdles: solving revenue challenges, finding effective distribution strategies, keeping up with technology, and getting the content right to fit each distribution channel.

1. Publishers can best monetize their revenue generation by combining strategies

Meeting revenue goals has never been so challenging in an industry that takes place in real time. There is no clear formula, and the factors are so dynamic that it’s a risky business often requiring trial and error, and a whole lot of adaptability. Speakers at the conference talked about the success of their revenue strategies:

Paid Subscription Models

  • Paul Rossi, President, The Economist, led a speaker session at the DPS about how the economist has long embraced the paid subscription model
  • Their success is a result of targeting niche audiences

Branded Sponsored Content

  • Joe Speiser, co-founder & CEO, Little Things, advocated for branded content
  • Little Things is a lifestyle publisher that engages 50 million visitors each month
  • They specialize in both original and branded content and employs social, especially Facebook to get reach
  • The result? High engagement and 75% traffic coming through Facebook with no subscription

Ad Monetization

  • In a panel at DPS, a partnership approach was highlighted as being critical bringing the buy and sell side together
  • Advertisers/agencies and publishers are coming together to maximise opportunities, often through custom executions
  • To facilitate these deals and boost revenue, publishers without the technical know-how are opting to work with technology providers and PMPs that will work with them exclusively to get the demand they need

2. Stay adaptable and keep your approach diversified to reach key audiences.

At the conference, conversations about reaching audiences focused on knowing how the audience consumes content. This information guides the development of effective distribution strategies, increasing reach, and finding quality opportunities to target audiences.

  • John Harris, publisher & editor-and-chief at Politico led a talk about “Building a balanced audience portfolio”
  • His message: relying too heavily on any one platform is dangerous because if the trend fades then the resources invested are lost
  • Diversification in terms of reach and building content to be experienced across platforms is another major key tip
  • For example, the use of video is rapidly growing and there’s pressure to understand and deliver effectively

3. Maintain your audience base by building trust through quality content

Quality content was reiterated by numerous speakers at Digital Publishing Summit.

“Timely, relatable and relevant,” these are the keys for engagement in social according to Rajiv Mody, VP of Social Media at National Geographic. Moday’s claim is backed by the fact that National Geographic consistently ranks No. 1 for total fans and engagement in the magazine industry across major social media platforms. It is also the most followed non-celebrity brand in the world on Instagram.

But in addition to quality content, Keith Hernandez, president of Slate, also advised audiences to explore new mediums. Slate specifically invests in podcasts rather than video and it has paid off – podcast audiences for the popular publisher tripled in 2015. Podcasts allow a different type of engagement and user experience – more of an in depth conversational delivery can be achieved through audio and has proven to provide the ideal user experience for a current events, politics, and culture content that Slate is known for.

But when it comes to video – a rising format in 2016 – Laura Buchman, VP of Publisher Platforms, tells us video is powerful across screens. She believes it’s crucial to develop, distribute, and monetize content through an all-screen lens. Buchman challenges publishers to consistently produce high quality video especially as audiences grow and expect fresh content on a daily basis. But there are set backs: the cost of video production are huge as is the pressure to build long term consistency rather than viral hits.

As we look forward to 2017, video has been reiterated as the format that poses some of the biggest challenges for publishers. Until the next Digiday Publishing Summit, we’ll have to watch the landscape and see how publishers and advertisers alike are keeping pace.

For more live-posts from the conference, check out our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Want to learn more? Connect with our team at sales@clearpier.com

by Erin Leslie

ClearPier to Sponsor Toronto Ad Club's Golf Day 2016

July 21st, 2016
At The Lionhead Golf and Country Club

Thursday July 21st, one of the Toronto Ad Club’s favourite summer events is happening: Golf Day. This year, ClearPier is proudly sponsoring the event and will be present on each of the courses at the Lionhead Golf and Country Club. Golf Day is a fantastic way to get out of the office and enjoy some fun in the sun teeing off and practicing your swing, while meeting new people.

Drop by our tent, play a mini game, and enjoy some snacks with our team! There is an opportunity for everyone attending to win an amazing prize from us.

Registration and range open begins at 8:00 AM  followed by breakfast at 8:30 AM. Remember to stay until dinner which starts at 5:00 PM – that’s when we’ll be holding the draw and handing out the prizes.

If you haven’t bought your foursome tickets yet, visit the Ad Club’s website to buy now.

We can’t wait to see you there!

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by Jenny Duong

ClearPier's Blyk Media Nominated for Best in Class Award at Digital Day

Digital Day 2016, presented by the Advertising Club of Toronto, was a big success this year. Hundreds of advertisers, media planners, technologists and creators came together to celebrate the power of collaboration and to honour each other’s achievements.

ClearPier’s Blyk Media Division was nominated for the Best in Class Award for our BBM Sticker campaign for Krombacher. The unique sticker campaign targeted Canadian and US audiences to drive brand awareness and engagement, and was met with enthusiasm by audiences globally. Krombacher’s stickers were designed by David Morello, Creative Director at Werk Creativ, and our very own Kingsley Fialho spearheaded the campaign which, besides from being a big success, finished as a top three finalist in its category.

Check out the nomination video below:

Krombacher Beer is the first North American brand to take advantage of Blackberry Messenger’s unique, brandable and clickable mobile stickers. Together Blyk and Blackberry’s exclusive Media Sales agency have been evangelizing the innovative  BBM* Advertising Solutions to major brand owners and agency groups since launching the line in late 2014.

On the campaign, Christie Kokoshko, Marketing Manager for Krombacher North America enthused: “It has been a great experience to work with the Blyk / BBM team to create our sticker pack*. Krombacher is growing steadily through a national network of prestige venues across Canada. Our brand represents European quality, international camaraderie and real sociability. We are delighted to offer BBM’s Canadian audience our innovative, interactive stickers free-of-charge and truly hope they will embrace our Krombacher emoticons to communicate with their friends and colleagues in a fun and friendly way.”  

Commenting on the nomination, Fialho mentioned that one of the biggest challenges with the campaign was figuring out a way to connect with audiences in a conversational and creative way to generate true engagement. Through the BBM app which is still strong, the Krombacher campaign was able to do just that.

 If you missed Digital Day 2016, check out all our live tweets below!

Until next year!

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by Jenny Duong

Five Key Learnings from the IAB's Programmatic - Live from the Trade Floor

Last week’s Programmatic – Live from the Trade Floor conference, presented by IAB Canada, was a high-speed day abuzz with the lively exchange of ideas and conversation, and industry insights. The main topic of discussion: programmatic media buying and the ways in which marketers can and must adapt to be able to successfully reach audiences, at scale.

From learning to understand growing demographics that are reshaping the way media is consumed, to the impact of performance in programmatic, and finally the importance of data tracking, analysis, and flow – there was a lot to learn.

If you missed it, here’s the top five takeaways:

1. Mobile Ad Data is Characterized by Millennials’ Behavior

We all know that everyone is on mobile these days. The stats tell all; in 2016 the average American adult spends over three hours each day on their phones according to eMarketer (other studies have reported up to 4.7 hours per day). The message to marketers has been loud and clear: your audience is on mobile, and you must be too.

And yet according to Tony Marlow, Head of Sales Insights at Yahoo, marketers are still drastically under-using mobile. As consumers increasingly shift towards app usage, Marlow explains that understanding that mobile ad data is characterized by the behavioral patterns of millennials is also essential to marketers.

Millennials process the world’s information differently. They’re better multitaskers, and better at filtering the data that’s most relevant to them. Most significantly however, Millennials are open to using their network’s group knowledge in a tribal way – before making a buying decision.

So what does this mean for programmatic advertisers? For Marlow, mobile ad data and user behavior must inform our programmatic buying decisions to ensure marketers make better connections with audiences in an automated, tailored, relevant, and especially personal manner. Combining automation with customized messaging is the biggest challenge.

2. Creatives Must be Data-Driven in a Programmatic World

Marketers love programmatic; it makes media buying more efficient and perhaps more effective. Programmatic enables advertisers to deliver targeted, customized, and contextually relevant ads, it also offers an opportunity to get smarter creatives in front of consumers.

Adam Green, Agency Business Development Lead at Google, explained there is too much of a gap in the process of how creatives are created in traditional agency methods, which doesn’t necessarily work for the developing digital process.

A lot of data exists between teams that may all be working on the same campaign, but there isn’t enough communication as planners, insights, and creatives work in disconnected silos. Green argues that we must improve data literacy across entire companies at every level and across every department to market better. Doing so will foster data-driven thinking, down to the creatives level. By using programmatic data in service of the creative vision and, finally, by driving a collaborative approach across departments, we can move towards delivering smarter, self-assembling ads.

3. In the Future, All Digital Marketing will be Classified as ‘Performance’

Speaking on the perfect partnership of programmatic and performance marketing, Brian Gleason, Global CEO of Xaxis, also boldly stated that in the future, all digital marketing will be classified as “performance.”

Performance-based marketing empowers advertisers to not only be more selective about the type of outcomes they wish to achieve in their campaigns, but also to only pay when those specific outcomes are actually achieved.

Combining programmatic and performance will allow marketers to focus on driving sales, and will result in targeting precisely the right person, at the right time, in the right place, with the right message and pushing for an action to be completed instantaneously. Indeed, the best part of performance marketing is its transactional accountability – your key performance indicator – and that means measurable return on investment.

The current shift towards programmatic performance with guaranteed pricing will allow advertisers to amplify their campaigns with no upfront risks, while benefiting from the reach and targeting capabilities of programmatic across screens. That risk is being absorbed by ad tech companies who are leveraging the risks they are taking to guarantee high performing media.

4. Approach Your Audience as Human Beings.

What marketers often forget after crunching the numbers and assessing the mountains of data we now have at our fingertips, is the fact that behind those stats and figures are live human consumers. Media iQ’s Head of Media Insights, Jennifer Clark, reminded marketers to approach their audience as human beings.

To do so, Clark suggests following the data flow of programmatic from offline real-time moments to online. Take for example the Jose Bautista bat flip (now dubbed “the most ostentatious bat flip in M.L.B. history” by the New York Times) in that famous seventh inning Blue Jays vs. Texas Rangers game in 2015. It was a real time moment that commanded the eyes of Canadians across the nation, a moment when audiences were emotionally and socially synced.

As Clark puts it, marketers must also sync with audiences socially. By considering external and offline behavioral data and seeing audiences as human in their programmatic buying strategies, marketers can successfully capitalize on emotional moments to supercharge their digital campaigns.

5. Integrate Mobile and OOH Strategies

Although the majority of strategic discussions today focus on the online ad world – from digital, to mobile, to programmatic – Out of Home (OOH) advertising is still relevant, and is adapting to the new world order. Out of Home is going digital (DOOH). Dynamic messaging through digital boards is a game changer for this traditional channel.

According to the Director of Mobile at Cieslok, Mike Blanchard, while questions about tracking and measurability have been raised about traditional OOH practices, the current shift towards integration of DOOH with mobile strategies should dispel any mystery around the geographic impact of OOH ads.

Though we spend much of our lives online, 70% of our time is also spent OOH. The “always connected” consumer therefore presents big opportunities to marketers. With OOH influence synced and layered over mobile geo-targeted ads, another actionable touch point is created, which also increases brand engagement in the real world. Syncing mobile geo-targeting with DOOH executions will also help advertisers to understand the ways consumers interact around each OOH ad location potentially down to individual store visits and purchases.

BONUS: Live Tweets from IAB’s Programmatic – Live from the Trade Floor

Programmatic – Live from the Trade Floor was a big success in driving thought leadership and insights in the programmatic industry. If we can take anything away from the key learnings, it is this one resounding message: the future of marketing is automated, performance focused, and data-driven.

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by Jenny Duong

ClearPier Sponsors IAB Programmatic - Live from the Trade Floor

March 23rd, 2016
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
The Carlu

We’re proud to announce that ClearPier is sponsoring this year’s IAB Programmatic – Live from the Trade Floor event.

Although one of the most significant innovations to happen in media in recent memory, programmatic media buying is perceived as both a challenging and complicated landscape. Automation, precise targeting capabilities, and scale are essential assurances that programmatic claims to deliver, and media buyers have flocked.

But advertisers and publishers want more in return for the money they invest into programmatic. We all want more returns, more transparency, and evermore technological advancements.

As IAB Canada puts it, “Programmatic and its ever-growing eco-system has driven tremendous growth in the media landscape. But where there is fortune, there is inevitably, crime. Wise guys, fraudsters, and gangsters are on the scene looking to take their cuts.” So how do we combat this?

Get informed, learn more, and understand who you can trust and how you can trade ads safely at IAB Programmatic. Join the ClearPier team on March 23rd on the exhibitor floor to explore how transparent trading is the future of programmatic. Hurry, tickets are limited!

We will also be covering the event live! Follow our tweets @clearpier, #iabprogrammatic, #itsclear

Pressed for time at the conference? Want to plan ahead? Schedule a meeting with us now.

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by Jenny Duong

Five Key Highlights from Dx3 Canada 2016

Last week Toronto hosted Dx3 Canada, the nation’s leading technology, digital marketing, and retail conference.

Now in its fifth year, Dx3 brought brands, agencies, retailers, advertisers, and publishers together for two days of networking and education. Despite a winter storm that threatened to throw off the entire show, over 120 exhibitors from diverse verticals, 4,000 attendees from all over Canada, and over 60 speakers participated. It was a stimulating conference featuring some of the most exciting and innovative technological advancements in the B2C space. Here are all the highlights you need to know!

1. ClearPier Makes a Splash at Dx3

ClearPier proudly sponsored the event and showcased our vision of the future of performance ad trading on the exhibitor floor. The ClearPier mission at Dx3: redefine existing conceptions about programmatic in the Canadian market by setting the expectation for an open, transparent, and accountable media landscape.

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Above, Left: The ClearPier team happy to talk about transparent trading at Dx3 Canada 2016. Above Right: From left to right, Ben Mair, CRO, Sunil Abraham, CEO, Jignesh Shah, CTO.

Sunil Abraham, ClearPier CEO, firmly declares that change is underway for programmatic media buying in Canada. “Historically the least transparent elements of digital advertising have been price, performance, and placement. North American marketers have ‘exploited’ the traditional ad stack, hiding behind layers of broken vendor promises,” Abraham says.

ClearPier is out to change these preconceptions, remove marketer hesitations in Canada, and re-introduce transparency into the ad ecosystem.

“We’re on the precipice of something great here. It’s an exciting time for programmatic, for Canada, and for ClearPier. We’re very excited to be here at Dx3 Canada among all these leading vendors,” says Ben Mair, ClearPier CRO.

While the primary focus for ClearPier is to unify demand for publishers across performance, direct sold, and programmatic campaigns, providing advertisers access to the exclusive premium inventory they demand, more is to be expected from this team of innovative technologists making waves in the Canadian media landscape.

2. Physical and Virtual Realities Collide at the Retail Collective Lab

A number of impressive curated interactive zones were on display at Dx3’s Retail Collective Lab, a showcase of the top retail technologies from around the world that unites physical and virtual realities.

This year’s Collective Lab story focused on the ‘store as media’ – the idea that the retail space is the facilitator of brand story and product experience. All of which should and can be measured with the assistance of technology.

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Pictured above from left: Pepper the humanoid robot by SoftBank Robotics. A 3D screen shot taken live in Stefanka’s interactive fitting room.

Most prominently Pepper by SoftBank Robotics, the humanoid robot that reads your mood, recognizes facial and body language, and reacts accordingly, made its Canadian debut. For retailers, the wide-eyed four-foot tall robot promises to make communication of information with customers a more efficient in-store process.

Other fascinating retail focused technologies featured also included smart projection devices that helps shoppers select a variety of fabrics and furniture in real time by Vizera, and body scanning 3D interactive fitting rooms by Stefanka.

3. PayPal Startup Zone Features the Latest and Greatest

Besides the Collective Lab, Dx3 also hosted the PayPal Startup Zone where 25 of the leading Canadian marketing and retail startups exhibited.

The purpose: to reinforce the fact that if Canadian companies want to thrive in a commercial world with increasingly tech savvy consumers, they need to adapt to changing consumer needs and expectations.

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Pictured: The teaBot booth located in the PayPal Startup Zone at Dx3. teaBot uses robotics to bring consumers an immersive, personalized experience at their self-serve tea kiosks.

Companies like Fetch, the social shopping app still in its beta testing stage, and SmoothPay, an up and coming mobile commerce and customer engagement platform, are re-imagining the consumer shopping experience with innovative technology and unconventional business models.

4. Key Note Learning: Creativity is Key to Innovation in a Tech-Obsessed World

At 8:30 AM on the first morning of Dx3 Neil Stevenson, executive portfolio director at design and consulting firm IDEO, stood in front of a room packed to the brim with entrepreneurs, technologists, marketers, and designers, listening intently. Speaking on the essentialness of creativity to inspire innovation, he likens creativity to breathing – something that’s always unconsciously at work. But to breathe more life into our creative problem solving abilities, we need to nurture our creative souls.

“Most fundamentally, creativity has an input and output, you take something in and make something out of it,” Stevenson said.

If the purpose of businesses is to solve a consumer need, then we must find creative ways to solve them. Startups are great at disrupting conventional business models to bring out creative solutions, but success only comes when “you put your ideas out in an egoless way” and engage in a dialogue, whether it be with your creative team or your consumers.

For Stevenson, creative problem solving comes first, the technological solution, second, and listening is essential. It isn’t enough to bring your idea to the table. For ideas to become great, they must be ‘incubated’ – observed, critiqued, and re-shaped by more than one opinion based on the observed needs of the consumer.

5. Live Tweets from the Dx3 Exhibitor Floor

Dx3 was a big success – filled to the brim with fun, fantastic technological displays, and new learnings. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth to chat about transparent trading. Dx3 returns in in March once again next year and we hope to see you there.

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Above: The ClearPier team exhibiting at Dx3 Canada 2016.

BONUS! If you missed the show, click to watch our video for a total recap of Dx3 Canada 2016 in under two minutes.

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by Jenny Duong

Dive into Dx3 Canada with ClearPier

March 2nd – 3rd, 2016
At Metro Convention Centre

ClearPier proudly sponsors Dx3 2016, Canada’s largest conference and trade show dedicated to digital marketing, digital advertising and digital retail. Dx3 brings agencies, brands, publishers and retailers together for two days of networking and education.

Join over 4,000 marketers, advertisers, retailers, suppliers, solution providers, media companies, and publishers for two days of inspiration, education, demonstration, and conversation.

Get informed and inspired by the innovators, marketers and entrepreneurs behind industry leading businesses including eBay, Twitter, BestBuy and Rogers. This year’s speakers explore a number of topics from how data drives true digital ROI in an increasingly complicated digital ad ecosystem to the growing convergence of advertising, publishing and editorial content.

Dive into Dx3 with ClearPier this March 2nd-3rd, 2016 in Booth #405 on the Exhibit floor. Our team will be thrilled to discuss how unified demand helps publishers maximize revenue across performance, direct sold and programmatic campaigns. We will also be covering the event live! Follow our tweets @clearpier, #itsclear.

Pressed for time at the conference? Want to plan ahead? Schedule a meeting with us now.

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by Jenny Duong