Monthly brandtech blend – April 2019

Home Blends & Trends 2 April 2019

Every month, fifty-five’s team features a selection of worth reading news and trends for you. So what happened recently in the brandtech ecosystem? Why Facebook seems to be impermeable to scandals, Google’s switch to first price auction, Instagram’s new e-commerce feature and what you should remember from Shoptalk 2019… Discover our selection for April!

Why top marketers won’t quit Facebook after 2018 scandals

Surely, marketers react completely differently to Facebook’s ePrivacy issues than Youtube’s brand safety scandals in 2017. After having faced – many – privacy and trust issues throughout 2018, Facebook has seen many of its users delete their account and permanently decide to leave the platform. However, advertisers keep believing in the platform’s goodwill, mostly as it provides unequaled audience targeting and consequently delivers great return on advertising investment.

Shoptalk 2019: 5 key retail technologies that brands should be focusing on

Following the annual Shoptalk fair in Las Vegas, five key trends are expected to shape the future of retail: the modernization of point of sale (POS) systems; the expansion of the “scan and go” concept pioneered by Amazon Go; styling-as-a-service with the emergence of personalized styling services and curation; mobile apps for super fans, rewarding customer loyalty with VIP access to unreleased collections; and – last but not least – data-driven hyper-personalization based on more sophisticated data collection methods.

Google switches to first-price auction

Google’s Ad Manager will be the last major publisher exchange to switch to first-price auctions, but is it good news for the adtech ecosystem? First price-auction means that the top bidder for an inventory then pays the winning bid price, unlike traditional second-price systems, in which the winner pays the second-highest bid. This should increase transparency, reduce operational complexity for sellers and make it easier for buyers and agencies to properly value inventory. However, in the short run, buyers should quickly review their bidding strategies to avoid seeing acquisition skyrocket! Also note that Google isn’t abandoning second-price auctions for YouTube and its Search properties.

What Instagram’s new payment feature means for DTC brands

Instagram recently announced that it was testing a new feature in closed beta, partnering with over twenty brands: a direct checkout feature that allows users to pay their product without ever having to leave the platform. The Facebook-owned social media aims to make shopping easier on its platform, and it’s likely that this feature will develop rapidly, as ecommerce seems to be the next big target of the company. On the brands’ side, the consequence is rather mitigated, as it obviously is a great opportunity to grow their customer base, but also means for them to kiss some precious first-party data goodbye.

How The Trade Desk has evolved for the next stage of DSP growth

American DSP giant The Trade Desk has experienced an incredible growth over the past year. Firstly, thanks to a successful strategy of product investments such as Next Wave or Koa, while keeping high take rates, in a market that would suggest doing the opposite. Also, framing itself as an agency and hence adapting to the growing trend of in-housing media-buy, which often means for brands to select a DSP vendor and work with it as the media agency, while remaining the decision-maker. However, The Trade Desk is now competing with exclusive media giants such as Google or Amazon.