Originally a French company, Teads has been ready for a cookie-free world for two years. In addition, it has been measuring advertising campaigns for some time now, among other things, by the attention parameter. "The attention parameter is another step that brings us closer to the expected effect of the communication. We have moved from impressions and viewability, i.e. the possibility, not the fact that the ad was seen, to the information on how much attention the ad actually received," says Daniel Tvrz, Teads' Country Manager for the Czech and Slovak markets.
For digital advertising campaigns, Teads also measures their carbon footprint in cooperation with the American company Scope3. "At first glance, it may not be completely visible that even such activity as advertising campaigns in the intangible environment of the Internet can have a negative impact on the environment. I myself was surprised by how big the impact of our business is in this respect," says Daniel Tvrz.
In addition to the web environment, Teads' offering has expanded into Connected TV (CTV), where it offers both the possibility of advertising on the home screens of selected smart TVs and in-stream formats within video content. Read more in the interview.
Teads has been operating in the Czech and Slovak markets for the last five years. What changes has the market seen in this period?
We have had an office in the Czech and Slovak market for five years, but we have been operating here longer, only previously our activities were managed within the region. Fortunately, the crises of the last few years, whether the pandemic of covid or inflation, have not affected us too much. This is partly due to the fact that we were opening doors to business partners domestically at the time, and partly because we are still in the development phase and growing significantly.
The business we are in is very dynamic and with that the way we look at whether a campaign is good or effective is changing. The fundamental drivers in it are the global players who are influencing events. Right now, it's mainly the events around the total shutdown of all cookies. Cookies have been phased out for a long time, gradually disappearing in individual browsers, but Google has been delaying this step in its Chrome. Teads is ready for a cookieless future, our Teads Ad Manager has been able to manage cookieless campaigns for two years now.
What about advertiser interest in cookieless solutions?
Their interest is in waves, it depends a lot on Google's announcements. The moment they announce that the cookie switch-off is imminent, interest will increase, but when they push it back again, interest will drop off.
Last summer, Teads published the results of a survey in which up to 70% of publisher respondents admitted uncertainty and confusion about the impending end of cookies. What is the situation today, less than a year on? What reactions are you seeing in the Czech publishing market?
Publishers are one step further in their certainty, but there are still many question marks. However, uncertainty and varying degrees of readiness are not only on the part of ad space providers, but also on the part of advertisers. In between are the agencies that are most prepared.
What will be the biggest impact of a total cookie switch-off on ad delivery?
It's always necessary to identify the right people for ad targeting. At Teads, we target by either looking at the user's profile or the context in which the ad sits. In addition, we can use both approaches at once, targeting both the audience profile and the context. The harder the user is to identify, the more important the context will be for the ad.
With targeting today, we work with semantics, not keywords. If you take the keyword golf, for example, you might be at a golf course, a Volkswagen dealership, or a baby carriage shop with that keyword. For this reason, semantic analysis is more accurate. With direct integration at publishers, we are able to monitor semantic context constantly. Added to this is the issue of alternative user identification, for example based on the device used, the connection method or with the help of artificial intelligence, which can assess the lookalike of the audience and their behavioral inclination towards a certain type of article.
Relatively soon, we would like to introduce attention as a purchase metric as well. - Daniel Tvrz
You offer advertisers an attention parameter when managing campaigns. What exactly does this parameter bring to advertisers?
The attention parameter is another step that brings us closer to the expected effect of communication. We have moved from impressions and viewability, i.e. the possibility, not the fact, that the ad was seen, to information about how much attention the ad actually received. Our measure of attention is based on two variables - the amount of time the ad was viewed on a given device and what elements in the ad received attention. We base this on the environment and how the ad is deployed - for each campaign, thanks to direct integration with publishers, we are able to measure in real-time on what device and site it was consumed, where exactly it is placed, how fast the user scrolls, how much interaction they have with it, how long they spend with it, what the site looks like, how fragmented it is, or what content it offers.
We combine these variables with insights into how the human eye reacts to certain stimuli, screen type, flickering effects, movement speed, color, dynamism, etc. All of this information is fed into an algorithm that can calculate how much a second of real attention costs the requester.
What ad formats increase attention? Which ones decrease it?
Your question is absolutely correct, but it could be compared to a situation where you go to a pharmacy and want the best medicine. It depends on the type of communication, the type of message and where exactly the communication is in the communication funnel, and this is the basis for identifying the appropriate formats. Last but not least, what the brand is, its history and awareness is also important. I think it is the magic of marketing that can come up with the right combination of formats.
At Teads, which works with clearly defined in-read, in-article or in-stream advertising formats, the scope for creative is very variable. Plus, we offer a helping hand in our Teads Studio. We don't create new visuals, but we are able to more or less optimize already finished creative to work best just in the Teads inventory and to meet a given KPI.
In a case study with Kooperativa, it came out that the advertising received the most attention on sports websites. What explains this?
I don't have an exact answer for that. It always depends on the specific creative of the brand in a particular context. The thematic focus of the site is important, but also its graphic design. Advertising behaves differently on a clean site with long articles, differently on a fragmented site with lots of tiles. In some places, a clean visual will stand out better, in others, a dynamic flashing ad. In Teads, we can adjust the campaign over time as it scores. Where it has better numbers, we'll boost it, and where it doesn't work as well, we'll lower it. So far we're doing it manually, but we're already working on automation to optimize it in real time. Relatively soon, we would like to introduce mindfulness as a purchase metric as well.
The size of the carbon footprint [of a digital campaign] is determined by the chain of all the players involved, and the key thing is how long that technology chain is. - Daniel Tvrz
In Teads, you also offer the ability to measure the carbon footprint of a given campaign, comparing it to, for example, the number of kilometres travelled. What is the interest in this from the sponsors?
Compared to attention, the interest is a bit lower. On the other hand, more and more commissioners are realising that their production has an impact on the environment, even in the field of advertising communication. It's a good topic for PR, where companies can present themselves as being mindful of sustainability in digital advertising as well.
It may not be entirely visible at first that even activity such as advertising campaigns in the intangible environment of the internet can have a negative impact on the environment. I myself was surprised at how big the impact of our business is in this respect. We measure the carbon footprint of digital campaigns in partnership with Scope3, a US company that tracks the process from the moment an existing campaign is inserted into a particular advertising platform to the moment the ad is displayed to the end user. The size of the carbon footprint is determined by the chain of all the players involved, with the key being how long that technology chain is. The advantage of Teads is that we manage a large part of the entire advertising chain ourselves, it is very short compared to other advertising options and this makes us more sustainable.
Which formats are more environmentally friendly and which are less so?
It depends on the data size, colour or luminosity. But the device on which the ad is displayed also plays a role, as a mobile phone has a different energy consumption and a desktop a different one. At the same time, whether the internet connection is via data, wifi or cable is also important for sustainability. Last but not least, the energy definition of the market is taken into account. A country with a significant share of coal-fired power plants has its starting line for calculating its carbon footprint elsewhere than, say, Denmark, which runs very much on sustainable energy. It will also be interesting when the advertising industry is able to measure the carbon footprint of the production phase as well.
We have more TV screen producers in our sights to extend the reach. - Daniel Tvrz
You recently announced a collaboration with Vidaa, which operates the smart TV system for Hisense TVs and others, on native display advertising for CEE. How big is the market in the Czech Republic?
The Vidaa operating system covers about 300 TV brands globally, so the potential in the Czech market is quite large. We have an exclusive representation with Vidaa, but we also offer ad formats on LG and now Philips smart TVs.
Connected TV is another advertising format for us, in which we are able to provide advertising space. Until recently, we were web-only, but given our omnichannel approach to scheduling, CTV allows us to cover the entire day of a user who is on their mobile phone during the day, working on their computer during the day and can turn on the TV at home in the evening.
For smart TVs, we offer video or display advertising content on the home page of each smart TV, or classic in-stream for TV content. While we order TV homepages indirectly for now, we already have in-stream formats offered on multinational platforms like Rakuten in our Teads Ad Manager buying platform. This allows us to target primarily contextual advertising for CTV as well.
What kind of interest are you seeing in CTV ads domestically?
There is a lot of interest. It's a new thing that advertisers are interested in. Some companies like to show that they are innovative, not only in the field of their products, but also in marketing communications. In addition, the appetite for alternative ways of reaching out with video content is also driven by the money you can get for TV campaigns. Last but not least, CTV represents an incremental reach opportunity, enabling advertisers to reach new consumers.
What else do you have planned for this year?
We are planning one more innovation within CTV, but unfortunately I can't be specific yet. Apart from that, we have other TV screen producers in our sights to expand our reach. For attention, we will be looking to move to automated optimization and then buying metrics. We are continuously improving Teads Ad Manager (TAM), but with that we are still focusing on making it intuitive and user-friendly. We'd like TAM to be one of the first things our clients open first thing in the morning at work.
Daniel Tvrz, Country Manager of Teads ČR & SK
Daniel has been working as the head of Teads on the Czech and Slovak market for over five years. Previously, he was Managing Director of Httpool (now Aleph) and media agency Carat. He also has experience from other media agencies, such as Starcom or the Lagardère Group.
Source: mediaguru.cz
