Survey of 1,000+ leading brands, advertising agencies, media providers, and tech companies signals innovation and creativity will prevail in 2024 as marketers increase spending across all channels

Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, has released its 2024 Advertising Outlook Report, with all signs pointing to a prevailing focus on innovation and creativity in the new year. Overall, the findings show that despite macroeconomic headwinds holding over from 2023, optimism pervades the advertising industry. Omnichannel marketers, in particular, anticipate an active year, affirming their intent to maintain or increase spending in nearly every channel.

Examining key trends in media and advertising, the survey revealed that certain platforms stand to grow most significantly in 2024. For example, the report shows that not unsurprisingly, social media, digital display/video, and connected TV (CTV) are the frontrunners heading into the year, based on a sustained, surging investment that naturally mirrors consumer engagement and time spent. Specifically, 69% of survey-takers report that in 2024 they will increase social media spending, 65% for digital display/video, and 56% for CTV in 2024. At the same time, the number of marketers maintaining their investments in these channels is 28%, 30%, and 36%, respectively.

“There is a lot to dissect in this year’s survey with regard to the marketing funnel and the consumer journey. For instance, even though direct-response campaign performance remains a top priority for marketers tasked with delivering tangible ROI, brand advertising is gaining momentum,” said Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean. “Companies are taking a longer-view approach to driving customer loyalty and lifetime value. Even so, marketers are very aware that a prevalent gap remains between creative and media execution. If not addressed, this gap negatively impacts team workflow, messaging relevance, and market intelligence. So, resolving this gap and embracing the tools and systems required for doing so absolutely will be the largest growth opportunity for brands this coming year. ”

Overall, the highly-anticipated report highlights the forces driving the advertising economy as seen by industry leaders, including the macroeconomic spending trends of 2023. This is the fifth installment of bi-annual market reports produced by Mediaocean and features the largest base of respondents, nearly 1,100 total, delving into key media and technology trends as well as channel-specific 2024 projected advertising investments. Mediaocean primarily surveyed marketers and agencies but also included perspectives from media companies, measurement firms, tech platforms, and other industry cohorts.

"2024 will be a most consequential year and deliver unprecedented innovation in the advertising industry," said Bill Wise, Chief Executive Officer at Mediaocean. "As we navigate the challenges of data deprecation, antitrust regulation, and privacy protection, there is a massive opportunity for brands to reduce their reliance on Big Tech and leverage independent technology for everything from media buying to ad serving to omnichannel measurement. Embracing the scaled tools and systems required for this alignment will be the key to driving customer loyalty and lifetime value."

In addition to illuminating overall optimism and positive spend trends across channels, the survey underscored a rising focus on AI and waning interest in the Metaverse. The report highlights that Generative AI has not only captured everyone’s attention but has also led to a shift in focus and resource allocation. The analysis suggests that 2024 promises to be the year that AI moves from speculative use cases to practical, day-to-day applications, particularly in the areas of data analysis and market research. Respondents indicated that AI will become an increasingly integral part of daily workflows and serve functionals well beyond content generation.

For a full review of all key takeaways, please visit https://www.mediaocean.com/the-2024-advertising-outlook-report to download the complete Mediaocean 2024 Advertising Outlook Report. Additionally, Mediaocean will present the research during a webinar on January 18 with Joanna O’Connell, EVP Innovation at R3, and agency executives from dentsu, Initiative, and Jellyfish sharing their assessments of the imperatives for marketers.

Marketing Leader Brings 18 Years of Experience Building Brand, Demand & Product Marketing for Cloud, SaaS, Telecom Providers and TSDs

Procure IT, a game-changing data-driven IT procurement company, announced today that it has named Brian Leonard, an 18-year technology and channel marketing veteran and former Vice President of Marketing for RapidScale, as its Chief Marketing Officer.

In his new role, Leonard oversees the creation and management of Procure IT's marketing strategy, including digital marketing, strategic leadership, brand management, market research, sales collaboration, customer engagement, public relations, data analytics, budget management, and marketing team leadership and development.

"Brian Leonard and many of the Procure IT team members have extensive experience working together to build and successfully sell RapidScale," said Randy Jeter, Procure IT Co-founder and Managing Partner and former CEO of RapidScale. "We know and respect each other well and can hit the ground running to develop and execute Procure IT's marketing strategy to drive rapid growth and shareholder value."

Leonard is a data-driven technology marketing leader with nearly two decades of experience leading, growing and managing international marketing teams. Previously, Leonard led marketing operations for technology providers, such as RapidScale and ujet.cx, and technology services distributors (TSDs), including Intelisys and AppDirect. Leonard has also consulted with many technology, software as a service (SaaS) and telecommunications firms on marketing strategy and execution.

"I've run marketing on every angle of the technology advisor ecosystem, including distributors, platforms, agents, consultants and technology vendors," said Leonard. "I've spent my career helping small and midmarket companies scale their marketing organizations and positioning. I'm excited to reconnect with Randy Jeter and other members of the RapidScale team to drive revenue growth for Procure IT."

In addition to his role at Procure IT, Leonard serves as an advisor for several SaaS and platform organizations, including the SaaS Ecosystem and Business School (SEBS), Product HQ and Squibler AI. Leonard is certified in MEDDPIC Sales Methodology, Pragmatic Product Marketing, Demandbase ABM and Revenue Architecture School.

DataTribe, a global cyber foundry that invests in and co-builds next-generation cybersecurity and data science companies, today announced a $2 million seed investment in Vigilant Ops, a leading automation platform for the generation, maintenance, and authenticated sharing of certified Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).

Vigilant Ops, winner of the 6^th annual DataTribe Challenge in November, performs continuous vulnerability monitoring and alerting, security patch notifications, and the ability to upload SBOMs -- lists of the software libraries embedded in products -- from alternate sources.

"Software security is the next domain in cyber, and government policies are increasingly placing significant development regulations that require software manufacturers to be responsible for the cybersecurity of their products," said Tony Surak, chief marketing officer for DataTribe. "Vigilant Ops is meeting an urgent market need, automating the production of SBOMs to provide a system of record for software buyers to manage SBOMs and bolster resiliency through identifying and mitigating component vulnerabilities."

Federal government policymakers and regulators are keenly focused on software security and have highlighted SBOMs' role in creating a secure and resilient software ecosystem.

In 2021, the Biden Administration's National Security Strategy and Executive Order 14028 required SBOMs from organizations to secure the components of software products used to manage our nation's most vital interests. In the past two-plus years, SBOM mandates and guidance have been issued by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), just to name a few.

Vigilant Ops will use the funding to expand the capabilities of its InSight platform across multiple critical infrastructure industries. Vigilant Ops, which has focused primarily on the healthcare sector, will continue to build a complete inventory of software components recognized by legislation and regulatory requirements to expand into the energy, telecom, manufacturing, information technology, financial services, and communications industries.

Leo Scott, DataTribe CTO, will join the Vigilant Ops Board.

"The DataTribe funding, coupled with its foundry model, will enable us to quickly scale our technology and business development operations to meet the software cybersecurity challenges that threaten our national and economic security," said Ken Zalevsky, Vigilant Ops CEO. "Securing the products that enable the critical infrastructure every citizen and company rely on daily will help unleash the innovative uses of new technologies and services."

The most recent release of the InSight Platform now includes automated import of various SBOM formats, supporting industry standards like CycloneDX and SPDX. In addition, the vulnerability dispositioning process now enables justification responses, following prescribed industry standards and mitigation scoring, which can be included in Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange (VEX) reports.

Quality Attention™ Provides Actionable Attention Metrics that Tie to Business Results for Global Advertisers

Integral Ad Science, a leading global media measurement and optimization platform, today announced the general availability of its Quality Attention™ measurement product – the first to unify media quality and eye tracking with machine learning. The new offering provides transparent metrics to help global advertisers increase return on investment, drive brand consideration, and boost conversions.

With Quality Attention, advertisers can capture higher attention to drive campaign performance and unlock proven results. Quality Attention uses advanced machine learning technology, actionable data from Lumen Research's eye-tracking technology, and a variety of signals obtained as part of IAS's core technology, including viewability, ad situation, and user interaction, and weighs them into a single attention score. IAS's attention model is designed to predict if an impression is more likely to lead to a business result including awareness, consideration, and conversion.

"Attention measurement must inform actions that drive superior results for advertisers," said Yannis Dosios, Chief Commercial Officer, Integral Ad Science. "Our Quality Attention offering is purpose-built to help brands and agencies navigate through media clutter to seamlessly understand how media visibility, the ad environment, and customer interaction impact campaign performance. According to our research, brands that focus on driving higher IAS attention scores achieve up to a 130% lift in conversion rates leading to a better return on their investment."

Quality Attention provides global advertisers with:

• An Advanced Machine Learning Model: A singular view of campaigns' attention performance, trained based on a pool of data consisting of billions of impressions and millions of conversion events.
• Proven Performance and Brand Results: Up to a 130% lift in conversion rates when comparing high attention impressions to low attention impressions, with greater attention scores seeing 91% higher brand consideration and 166% higher purchase intent.
• Unification of Media Quality with Human Attention: IAS is the first company to combine one of the world's largest consumer attention biometric data sets with media quality metrics to provide the most accurate picture of attention for global advertisers.

Global healthcare company, Sanofi, has partnered with IAS as they move beyond traditional ways of measuring media performance. "We know that ad clutter is not only a frustrating consumer experience, but it also correlates with attention and carbon footprint: less ad clutter = more attention and less carbon," said Anna Kechekmadze, Global Digital Media Lead at Sanofi CHC. "Our partnership with IAS on Quality Attention is giving us insight into how attention plays a role in reducing ad fatigue, getting better inventory quality and improving media KPIs."

IAS and Lumen Research announced their initial partnership in 2023 to change the way digital advertising impressions are measured for attention-first advertising. Now, IAS customers will have an even more powerful way to accurately track which ad impressions have captured attention and are likely to yield business results.

"We are excited about the evolution of our partnership with IAS and how we are offering advertisers a transparent and more accurate picture of attention," said Mike Follett, CEO at Lumen Research. "By bringing our cutting-edge eye-tracking data to IAS's attention model, advertisers have access to the most robust predictive attention models at scale."

Advanced Resource Enables Transparent Insights into Privacy Sandbox APIs

Today, IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standards-setting body, announced Index Exchange's donation of an advanced Privacy Sandbox Demo tool to the Privacy Sandbox Taskforce. This demo tool will provide an open-source platform for stakeholders to explore and comprehend the functionalities of Google's Privacy Sandbox Protected Audience APIs.

Index Exchange (Index), one of the world's largest independent ad exchanges, has spearheaded this initiative to offer an open-source solution that allows the digital advertising industry to comprehensively test the functionalities of Privacy Sandbox Protected Audience APIs without requiring complete implementation. This tool aims to enhance transparency by providing media owners and buyers with a platform to grasp the complexities and ramifications of these APIs in real time.

"As advocates for industry-wide collaboration and innovation, IAB Tech Lab commends Index Exchange for their commitment to advancing the common language of the programmatic supply chain," said Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab. "This demo tool deeply aligns with our goal to empower users with resources to visualize and understand the various implications of Privacy Sandbox Protected Audience APIs."

The practical implications of Privacy Sandbox Protected Audience APIs on programmatic bidding have remained obscure, and much of the industry has only begun to test them. Further, the advent of Protected Audience APIs signals a radical shift in programmatic auctions, fundamentally altering functionalities integral to current practices.

Fundamental use cases of digital advertising like frequency capping, video advertising, audience creation, impression counting, and more are impacted, unaddressed, or unsupported by the changes, highlighting the necessity for a thorough understanding among all stakeholders involved in programmatic advertising within Chrome. Index Exchange's donation of this demonstration tool allows the industry to accelerate the collective understanding of Protected Audience APIs and their implications within the industry, and the ability to provide more comprehensive feedback.

"To understand the complexities of Protected Audience APIs, we engineered a Privacy Sandbox prototype, where all industry players can effectively test and better understand the nuances of the new dynamics. The live demo provides logging and visualizations, offering a comprehensive overview with the flexibility for further testing," said Mike McNeeley, Senior Vice President of Product at Index Exchange. "We're excited to donate this demo to the industry to accelerate collaboration and education as we collectively navigate the complexities of the evolving addressability landscape."

Total by Verizon, a fast-growing prepaid no-contract wireless provider from Verizon, is making a major play to reach Latino audiences during the Big Game on the nation’s largest Spanish-language TV network, Univision. The new 30-second ad will air during the first commercial break of the second quarter.

TelevisaUnivision will air its first-ever broadcast of the Big Game, and Total by Verizon will debut new advertising creative. The brand hopes to inspire Spanish-speaking game watchers to switch to one of its service plans as a new way to save on the network America relies on. The new advertisement is part of a 360-degree campaign created by Ogilvy.

“Total by Verizon’s appearance during the Univision telecast of the Big Game marks our commitment to serving Latino audiences authentically and in language, and it’s just the beginning,” said Angie Klein, President of Verizon Value organization. “We are here to change people’s perceptions of what prepaid wireless is all about by offering the power of Verizon’s 5G network, with no contracts and no credit checks.”

A fast-growing retail brand opening new locations in urban markets across America, Total by Verizon features a broad lineup of devices, generous benefits and no-contract service plans for both single-line accounts and families for as low as $25 a line per month for unlimited 5G data. Perks on select plans include unlimited calling to five countries of your choice, Disney+, access to 5G Ultra Wideband, and generous hotspot allocations.

Since its introduction, Total by Verizon has worked to make an impact in communities across the country by opening hundreds of new, exclusive stores in urban communities where other retailers are closing their doors, with hundreds more planned throughout 2024. Plus, the brand makes it easier than ever to connect with loved ones here and outside of the US, with International talk & text to Mexico, unlimited international calling to select countries including Colombia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic, and a $10 Global Calling Add on available at any Total by Verizon retail location or online.

imo's new Passkeys function leads the path for secured, safe and seamless communication

Popular instant communication platform, imo, has recently launched Passkeys, enabling password-less login through biometrics. Powered by robust asymmetric cryptography technology, the function also reduces credential theft, ushering in a new standard of seamless authentication that delivers the optimal balance of security, privacy and convenience that users demand.

With Passkeys, users can conveniently unlock their imo account using their face, fingerprint, or PIN during login. This biometric data is not sent to imo to safeguard users' privacy. imo's state-of-the-art asymmetric cryptography safeguards users against password theft by malicious websites. Using fingerprints and facial recognition to verify a user's identity eliminates the need to remember passwords and undergo the cumbersome secondary authentication process through SMS, especially across borders. These features create a seamless and highly secure login that improves the sign-in experience for imo's global user base.

Passkeys signifies a major upgrade to account security and access. Leading platforms like WhatsApp and TikTok have also implemented the technology in moves beyond vulnerable password-based systems and tedious SMS-based two-factor authentication. imo joins this shift toward more robust login security.

As global communication advances, security concerns remain paramount. imo remains committed to developing innovative solutions for seamless, private messaging between global users. Passkeys represent the next generation of login technology, and imo is proud to be driving this new standard for its expanding global user base.

Digital Watermarking Pioneer Doubles Down on Commitment to Protect Digital Content Owners and Consumers

Digimarc Corporation, the leader in product digitization and pioneer in digital watermarking, today reinforced its commitment to protect digital content owners and consumers, announcing the company is offering device manufacturers, chip manufacturers, and content creation platforms free access to its Secure, Automated, Fair, and Efficient (SAFE™) digital watermark embedding and detection tools for digital assets.

The speed with which generative artificial intelligence (AI) is developing, combined with the lack of regulation and the potential for heightened dissemination of misinformation in a pivotal election year around the world, has created the perfect storm.

“Generative AI didn’t create the problems of deepfakes and intellectual property misappropriation in the digital world, but it is forcing the world to take long overdue steps to address them,” said Riley McCormack, Digimarc President and CEO. “We are committed to protecting and empowering both the creators and consumers of digital content. Collaboration across an open digital ecosystem is a critical first step.”

The ability to embed and detect digital watermarks in synthetic and non-synthetic content at the device or platform level is fundamental to safeguarding digital assets in the era of AI. It is also the most secure, efficient, and ubiquitous way to deploy digital watermarks at scale to create a safer, fairer, and more transparent internet. In addition to gaining compliance with upcoming global regulations, device manufacturers (camera, smartphone, tablet, laptop, and more) and content platforms can now offer content creators native (on-device or in-platform) tools to bind authenticity and ownership information to digital assets by embedding digital watermarks before assets are published, while also protecting manifests based on the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) standard. These manifests are often stripped from content when uploaded to content libraries, websites, or published on social media. Equally important is on-device detection. Device manufacturers can now provide their customers with the ability to receive notification of digital content's corresponding information, thereby creating a more transparent digital ecosystem.

Not all digital watermarks are created equal.

Digital Watermarking is the science of hiding information about an item in the item itself. SAFE™ digital watermarks can communicate content provenance, authenticity, and copyright information about a digital asset in a way that is both secure and bound to the asset itself. To create a safer, fairer, and more authentic internet, digital watermarks must have five specific characteristics. Digital watermarks must be covert and machine readable, immutable, ubiquitous, redundant, and secure.

It is also important to note that metadata or manifests are not digital watermarks. Information about a digital asset, such as provenance and ownership, is referred to as metadata. Sometimes this metadata is stored in a format called a manifest. This information is critical to determining the ownership or authenticity of digital content. This said, metadata and manifests are not immutable, redundant, or ubiquitous. Metadata is easily removed from files. Digital watermarks, when embedded in a digital asset, give metadata enduring value, acting as a tether to retrieve a digital asset’s correct and unaltered manifest, and related metadata.

“We believe tools like robust digital watermarks can change our digital ecosystem from one of uncertainty, unfairness, and suspicion to one of greater authenticity, fairness, and trust,” said McCormack. “The technology to authenticate content online is available today, and as the pioneer and widely-recognized leader in digital watermarking, Digimarc will continue to lead the way for the creation of a system that protects the rights of content owners and consumers.”

Last month, Digimarc introduced the industry-first open-source web browser extension to validate and display digital asset manifests based on the C2PA standard. The new Content Credentials Chrome extension allows content consumers to check images for C2PA manifests – adding a Content Credentials pin (“CR”) to the image if a manifest is present. The web browser extension is now available in the Chrome Web Store.