#Technology

Each year in May, television (and now streaming) networks invite the industry to come together and bask in the advertising glory of the year to come. This is the TV Upfront event, where major new shows are revealed, big announcements are made, and advertising deals are struck. It’s a time when all the major outlets are looking to win over programmatic dollars and a timely snapshot into the health of the OTT/CTV medium.

New technologies and a worldwide pandemic have encouraged the advertising industry to cut out middlemen and other costs, leading to many overworked and understaffed internal marketing teams. These teams have adapted through the implementation of fully-managed programmatic platforms, and it’s time for media agencies to make the same jump. Published on AP News and Benzinga, Genius Monkey dives into the context and benefits of adopting a fully-managed programmatic system. If your team needs better ad coverage, hands-on expertise, and simplified workflows, get in touch with the Genius Monkeys and evolve your marketing strategy to the next level!

Netflix Reports Large Increase in Ad-Supported Streamers With former password-sharers still eager for Netflix content, the addition of a cheaper, ad-supported tier seems to be just the right medicine. In January, Netflix announced over 23 million active monthly users on the commercial-driven version of the service. Compare this with the November 2023 report of 15 million; that’s an increase of 8 million active users in two months! Last year, ad-supported customers made up about 5% of Netflix’s total user base; now they represent almost 9%.

First, there came the DSP. Now, a somewhat newer term has emerged following the release of new technology—Meta-DSP. Don’t worry about trying to keep up and understanding it all—we’ll do it for you, right here in this blog. Out of pure ease and the attempt of saving money, many advertisers choose to go with a single DSP, which limits their ad platform to the placements and costs that the DSP is able to provide at the time of the ad placement bid.

How many TV show and movie subscription channels are you paying for right now? From Disney+ to HBO Max and Netflix, you’re probably paying $8-12 per platform each month. That adds up. As subscription costs keep rising, so does the popularity of a different platform: FAST. What is FAST? FAST stands for free ad-supported television. Examples you may know include Roku TV, Pluto TV, and Tubi. You can watch live news or a continuous loop of your favorite TV show.

At this time of year, most people like the tricks and the treats. But when it comes to your business and the customer experience, you want to avoid anything ghastly. That’s why we’ve put together the top things you may be doing that could be scaring off your customers. They may be avoiding you like the plague if you are making these grave mistakes or if you don’t offer them the best experience possible.

Many agencies try to keep everything in-house with a self-serve digital advertising model, but they’re left with depleted time and resources. In our latest article published on Yahoo! Finance and MarketWatch, read how a fully managed service brings in a powerful advertising technology partner to help you reach all of your goals, without the added stress on your shoulders. In a day and age where hiring experienced marketing experts is proving more difficult, it’s no wonder why agencies are turning more often to fully managed platforms—it just makes sense.

You’re sitting at home, having a conversation with someone about a restaurant or a new piece of clothing you want to buy. Two minutes later, you see an advertisement on your phone for that same exact restaurant or clothing store. How does your phone know what you’re saying? Is there a microphone, constantly listening for buzzwords and then rapidly bringing you ads for those things you talk about? Advertising these days can be pretty advanced, but when you look at life in general, everything is very interconnected.

Now that we’ve safely landed in the new year (still recovering from a helluva rough 2020, though), take a moment to reflect. Visualize a snapshot of your life in 2019. Now compare that snapshot to your life in 2020. Do you see some major differences? If you don’t, then you’re not looking! A myriad of things has changed from 2019 to 2020. The biggest of which is evident in the new WFH (Work From Home) initiatives that have been implemented around the world.

Over the top TV (OTT) or Connected TV (CTV) have pretty much made their mark on the advertising landscape — enough to stake their claim as a mainstay in the advertiser’s official bag of tricks! Currently, there are more than 130 CTV applications1 available to viewers, and that number is growing rapidly; like a new city popping up in the middle of the desert. But, with any new city comes new bad guys.