Theo Theodorou

In the latest episode of the IAB UK podcast, Dave S. sits down with Sophia Haynes and James Chandler to talk about the IAB's newly launched Environmental Sustainability FAQs, it's rationale, and how we at GroupM UK are using them day-to-day. Listen here 🎧 https://lnkd.in/eTDyKXGD #GroupMUK #Sustainability

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Get it here first - all the news from Google Marketing Live 2024!

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In the words of Dan Black, Teads’ CTV Pulse is the culmination of a deep dive into the 'shift factors' affecting consumer content consumption, marketers willingness to commit shifting ad dollars and the driving factors for agencies looking to help advertisers move into CTV. Please click on the link below and have a read. #CTV #bestinglass

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📈 Navigating the Evolving Marketing Landscape: Insights from the Latest CMO Survey The 32nd edition of The CMO Survey reveals critical challenges and opportunities for marketers, especially those in highly regulated industries like healthcare, finance, manufacturing and more. A few key takeaways: 🏆 Driving growth requires differentiated strategies and strong execution. The ability to develop distinct positioning and effectively bring it to market separates the fastest-growing companies from the rest. 🔮 While generative AI holds immense potential, adoption remains low with only 7% of marketing activities leveraging it currently. As marketers look to harness this power, proactively addressing risks around brand alignment and bias will be crucial. 📈 Martech spending continues to climb, but many organizations struggle to fully realize the value of their investments, citing challenges with integration, talent, and demonstrating ROI. Taking a holistic approach to designing and managing the Martech stack is key. 🌱 Sustainability has become a strategic imperative, with spend on related initiatives predicted to grow from 1.9% to 4.5% of marketing budgets over the next 5 years. Brands that authentically embed sustainability across the customer experience will have an advantage. While some may be quick to deprioritize customer experience when budgets tighten, in industries where trust and compliance are non-negotiable, delivering seamless, end-to-end experiences remains essential. At TrueVoice Growth Marketing™, we're committed to helping clients navigate this complexity through tailored growth strategies powered by compliant-by-design technology and deep industry expertise. If you're looking to drive full-funnel results while staying ahead of evolving customer expectations and regulatory requirements, let's connect. #B2BGrowthMarketing #RegulatedIndustries #CXStrategy #MarketingTrends https://lnkd.in/gDZhynd6

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Gen AI means more reputation risk Generative AI is revolutionising the process of creating communications content. And it's directly changing media consumption habits, accelerating the disintermediation of mainstream media and facilitating the rise of alternative content sources. Meanwhile the proliferation of synthetic media content has negative implications for trust and authenticity. AI-generated content is blurring the lines between reality and fabrication, challenging traditional media’s role as gatekeepers of trusted information.  In this short piece, I argue that 'Gen AI’ is therefore massively raising the threat level for brand reputation risk. All thoughts welcome. https://lnkd.in/dPNRiMiK

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'Proprietary Media' (or 'Principal) is a hot potato in our industry right now. A new report from the Association of National Advertisers is a great, in-depth guide to the pros and cons, with very good recommendations for advertisers. Here I go into the cons and cons and argue that it is bad for everyone and ultimately the Media Agencies themselves. I call it 'unprincipled' media. As the WFA meets in Toronto for Global Marketer Week the health of the advertising industry should be on the agenda. Advertisers may not be able to solve issues such as climate change, but they can take actions with a more immediate impact on the well-being of the people who service their needs through how they spend their money. The news piece contains the ANA report can be found here https://lnkd.in/geKeFjBX All comments welcome, as ever.

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Big announcement from Open AI today - their new GPT-4o (the o stands for omni) blends text, audio and images in near real time, meaning when you speak to it, the reply will be as fast and nuanced as a human. The demos are insane, and brings us closer to the ‘always available’ assistant. 🙌🏽 https://lnkd.in/ekBjtU3D

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Travis Lusk Good to see you highlighting this report again. It needs to remain in the spotlight even at the risk of repetition for those already aware. Bill must be able to recite this blindfold. Yes, we need more advertisers adopting the extremely comprehensive playbooks in the report and hopefully they will. Education is the key. But more than anything we need the big agency groups to gradually wean themselves off the drug of easy money from programmatic trading, arbitrage and undisclosed margins. No agency group has supported the study and they won't, so advertisers have to make it clear that they won't allow this to continue and then work through new compensation methods that work for both parties. Trying to fix this problem without addressing fees and performance-led rewards is not going to shift the needle. Bill Duggan Association of National Advertisers

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Join next week's executive briefing on Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot. ⏲️Wed 24th April, 11am GMT⏲️ Demand for our executive briefing on 20th March was extremely high, with plenty of positive feedback received after the event.   So, for those who were unable to make it, we're running a second session next Wednesday at 11am. With the recent introduction of Copilot for Microsoft 365 for SMB's, this is an exciting opportunity to see the latest insights and practical implications of AI for your firm. Our CEO Terry Doherty and Director of Enterprise Architecture Owen Morris will cover: · Generative AI introduction: what business leaders need to know · Copilot explainer: Microsoft's family of AI offerings · Practical guidance for adopting Copilot within your firm · Key risks and considerations to be aware of Find out more and register here: https://lnkd.in/e2B9uCHX #Copilot #Webinar #AI #Microsoft365

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Good to see digital video revenues growing across Europe. You’d think at 45% digital ad spend and grossing out at over €21Bn, it wouldn’t be totally revolutionary if it had its own category instead of being lumped in with ‘Display’. Making it easier to apportion agency budgets, manage publisher cost centres and offer a rare opportunity for the industry to call a spade a spade. Here’s to hoping. https://lnkd.in/eCFT2Jp2

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We're in the countdown phase to ProcureCon Europe Series in London on June 4th and 5th. Media Procurement is now a vital discipline within advertisers, especially with channels such as Retail Media, Digital Commerce and Connected TV exploding. These present new opportunities and risks that Procurement can help manage. All three revolve around the use of consumer data to improve effectiveness and its measurement. So new ways to manage data are required alongside the financial considerations that preoccupy Procurement. Media Procurement needs to help achieve positive outcomes not just 'savings' or 'value'. Advertisers are buying the media, not just the infrastructure around it. So more focus on what good media looks like is needed. These matters were explored in depth at last month's Marketing Procurement iQ conference in London. In two articles I outline the big themes discussed at the conference and the solutions. Here is Part One. https://lnkd.in/esbCjv6T

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Thank you Andrew Birmingham for your great article on the intersection between sales and marketing, and for sharing the Arktic Fox Sales in Focus '24 report insights further and wider. I personally look forward to your next piece on the wild world (some may refer it to a messy jungle) of sales tech. #sales #salestransformation #b2b #salestech #b2b

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'Cookies are gone, but audio targeting is better than ever’ was our tag line at Adwanted UK Future of Audio & Entertainment 🔊 Head of Agency, Isobel Langley at GroupM UK, joined the stage with Ridhi Jogia Implementation Director at EssenceMediacom UK, to discuss geo targeting and the success it is driving for clients. Combining GroupM's single point of entry solution with EssenceMediacom’s geo-graph planning and activation tool is proving to be a winning combination, not only for digital audio, but across the full addressable eco system. #AudioTargeting #GeoTargeting #FOAE

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Need to get more fluent in practical uses of #AI to enhance your impact? Join the WE.DOOH webinar next week to learn how marketing leaders improving efficiency and delivering better outcomes. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eKmHkuVp

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Want to know more about CTV? Then look no further! We have partnered with YouGov to speak to UK consumers & marketers to explore their perceptions of CTV and the opportunities it brings. We are also knee deep in scoping measurement opportunities. So feel free to download the report & get in touch if you want further information. #CTV #CTVmeasurement #Teads

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Nick Manning has an excellent piece (https://lnkd.in/ebjX_YUF) in The Media Leader today on how agencies make money on what I always knew as broking and which today has been relabelled 'Principal-Based Media', presumably in the hope that that makes it alright...! There's a danger that Nick's points will be dismissed by many as the mechanics of media buying, the dark arts perfected by the few in order to squeeze a better deal for their clients by the agencies. As Nick shows it's nothing of the kind. And it's far more concerning than that. If you accept that the agency can act as a broker, or reseller of media space and time then you have to accept that the media agencies doing this are no longer objective in their recommendations; that their plans are not worth the paper they're written on; and that measuring the advertising's effect by channel is no longer possible. Trading media becomes just like trading a commodity. If you think that 'media' is more than a commodity defined by largely meaningless numbers on a spreadsheet, that instead 'media' is an integral component of advertising; and that creativity and craft matter, then you can join Nick and me (and an increasingly large group of supporters from all corners of the ad business) in the 'Advertising: Who Cares?' movement, and maybe join us at our event in September. Mail me on brian@bjanda.com or Nick on nick@encyclomedia.international for more details. Geraint Davies Julia Linehan

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The IAB UK have released their 2023 ad spend report, and makes some great reading. The overall digital ad spend has increased in the market by 11%, and Retail Media has increased by 12%. This 12% figure is just scratching the surface in my opinion. Retailers have continued to integrate data across multiple marketing channels, for example, we have seen retailer data become more promient in CTV (which video has seen a growth of 21%), there are integrations with off-site display, and social platforms, and let's not forget these figures exclude the behemoth that is Amazon. We have also managed to see significant efficiency gains across our clients with retailers through driving more sales for less investment, especially as retailers start to improve their own algorithm's and tech capabilities in addition to our own optimisations. #retailmedia #IABUK

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Looking forward to hosting this conversation this evening in partnership with Microsoft & MagnetMedia discussing how AI can drive positive change in how brands create more engaging experiences for consumers and customers. #CannesLions2024 #CannesLions #AI

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It’s been long established that OOH supports top of the funnel, but looking at the recent data of tactical programmatic DOOH that Flow City clients run it is becoming apparent OOH as a channel plays an important part in driving sales. As always the devil is in the details with context and location having huge impact on the campaign. #programmaticDOOH #dooh

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