CEO Sree Nagarajan offers his take on the great data debate. Should marketers use deterministic or probabilistic data? The truth is that both have their pros and cons. Find out what marketers should know to make the best decision when you read the full piece here.
CEO Sree Nagarajan explains why social affinity is a powerful addition to any marketer’s toolbox. In a new Q&A with BizReport, he explains how social affinity acts as a branding metric. Why does it matter to marketers? And what does the future hold when social affinity is linked to business outcomes?
Read the full Q&A on BizReport.com.
Manager of Operations and Partner Integration Allison Trebon writes about the state of programmatic TV in a new MediaPost op-ed. What steps can the industry take together to move this initiative – one that is brimming with opportunities – forward?
You can read the full op-ed here.
Although the official end to summer isn’t until September 22, Labor Day weekend is our unofficial marker. Just take a stroll through any grocery store or pharmacy. You’ll find that beach balls and sunscreen have been replaced with Halloween candy and pumpkin decor. By next month, Thanksgiving and Christmas merchandise will likely be on the shelves.
While the average consumer is still transitioning from summer to fall, CPG marketers have been planning their holiday campaigns for several months. We can expect that budgets for these campaigns are final, but there will be room for optimizations and incremental spend. Using social affinity as a recommendation engine, AffinityAnswers can predict the content (site-level, genre, or YouTube channels) that will best resonate with consumers of thousands of Food & Beverage brands.
Let’s take a look at how these holiday favorites can power smarter media optimizations using signals from social affinity. The below chart compares and ranks each digital property by the focus brand.
Summer is just getting underway, but the broadcast networks have long been thinking about fall. Specifically, they are working to make sure that the season’s most successful entries are on their schedules. Social affinity can help in a process that presents unique challenges.
Since the shows haven’t aired yet, it’s hard to tell which concepts will attract audiences beyond findings from primary research and pure intuition. Social affinity is a much more accurate benchmark; networks create a social presence shortly after the annual upfront presentations, which are held several months before premiere week. Both networks and marketers can now use affinity-based programmatic tactics at every stage of a new program’s lifecycle.
Our VP of Product, Mahesh Narayanan, offers his thoughts on the prevalence of bots and how they compromise the value of social engagement and marketing efforts. Read what he thinks every marketer should be looking for as they combat this ongoing problem in MediaPost.
Our founder and CEO, Sree Nagarajan, writes about the challenges in media measurement today. Read his thoughts and the three obstacles that have presented themselves on MarTech Advisor.
It’s finally summer! Time to break out the barbecue grills and the beach towels, but no one should forget how much importance the tourism industry places on this time of year. According to the World Tourism Organization, even in the face of safety and security challenges, 46 million more tourists travelled internationally in 2016 vs. the previous year. The total number – 1.235 billion- is only expected to get better this year when the results of a Panel of Experts survey was analyzed. So what does this have to do with social engagement?
Social engagement is the prism through which consumers relay their experiences. Therefore, it only makes sense that, as tourism heats up, social engagement and social affinities for these attractions will also increase year-over-year. Here is a sample of the most visited international tourist attractions, as compiled by Travel + Leisure and HuffPost along with the increase year-over-year in each attraction’s top non-travel social affinity:
Do you feel stuck on the journey to finding that perfect gift for dad this Father’s Day? When we say that AffinityAnswers uses social affinity as a recommendation engine, we are usually talking about recommending audiences for marketers. For example, if the NBA champion Golden State Warriors wanted to partner with a brand, our proprietary algorithm and scoring engine recommends Les Schwab Tire Centers as a more viable option than even more intuitive choices like Finish Line.
What does this have to do with dear old dad? Well, using our vast catalog – tracking the public social engagement of over 60,000 brands, TV shows, celebrities, sports teams and more – we are able to provide some great recommendations to get the perfect gift for every kind of dad:
The Sports Enthusiast Dad (using ESPN as a proxy): Tickets to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Nike Jordan Shoes, Just for Men
The “All Business” Dad (using The Economist as a proxy): Subscription to National Geographic, tickets to a TED Conference, a donation to UNICEF in his name
The Super Fit Dad (using Men’s Health as a proxy): a gift certificate to Bodybuilding.com, a CrossFit gift card, MuscleTech supplements
The Culinary Dad (using Top Chef as a proxy): Frigidaire kitchen appliances, an assortment of McCormick Grill Mates seasonings, cooking classes at Sur La Table
Our very own Client Services Lead, J.T. Compeau, was recently asked about how predictive analytics can win sports fans and specifically how brands can tap into the social sports fan’s experience. Check out his comments and learn how AffinityAnswers can be a key part of this solution in DMNews here.
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