Taking Marketing into the Quantitative Age. An Interview with Marc Media’s Walid Eli Khoury

Walid Khoury, Founder and CEO, Marc Media, is on the forefront of IoT marketing. “I had an early passion for tech innovation, starting with my first 286 PC when I was 8 years old. From then on, computers and technology have driven me to keep pace by experiencing the evolution of technology first-hand.”

He has applied that early knowledge into marc’s infrastructure which was founded in February 2020, “With Covid on our heels,” he explained as he worked with select clients towards launch. “Early this year we opened the Marc channel to the public, introducing the World's First IoT Connected Video Brochure.” What I find most interesting is that his collaterals are able to collect usage data as well as some other interesting touchpoints.

Charlene Weisler: What are the topline advantages of IoT connected video brochures?

Walid Khoury: Recognizing the compelling engagement features of legacy video brochures, we wanted to integrate the power of measurement and attribution, which digital and TV marketers had become accustomed to. We built an IOT platform that we integrated into the brochures to enable digital measurement, in real time. Marc essentially combined the power of Video + Digital + Print marketing in one, representing a new immersive and interactive marketing experience / channel 

Weisler: How does Marc work?

Khoury: A Marc campaign is deployed by simply picking a screen size, providing a design for the print template, delivering video creative or images for the device, and then you’re ready to launch.  Your campaign can be deployed using one of two reporting options, both in real time (campaign analytics or  individual analytics). We took the simplicity of the current video brochure and developed the Marc IoT technology that through our strategic partnership with AT&T is able to now communicate back the interactions and even calls-to-action of a recipient.

Weisler: Does Marc fall under the out of home advertising category?

Khoury: It’s an interesting question because Marc doesn’t fit any one category. Yes, it can be used in out of home, but it can also be sent directly to homes via direct mail. We anticipate the largest use cases to be direct mail and in person at conferences or sporting/entertainment events.

Weisler: What data do you collect?

Khoury: We collect open + close rates, which content is viewed, how long it's viewed for, if it was moved to other locations. We also collect data from interactions, which are derived from call to action and feedback buttons on the device.

Weisler: How can this data be leveraged with other datasets?

Khoury: Campaign level campaigns: Generally used for Marketing, a Marc campaign provides an overall first-person perspective on the impact of their creative and audience habits. Individual Level campaign: General used for sales teams, each Marc device is IOT enabled, which provides powerful behavioral data from each recipient.

Weisler: What types of clients are you working with?

Khoury: Several different verticals including - Marketing and Sales teams at Brands direct, Valuable Partner Agencies in the service chain such as creative, direct marketng, direct mail, video and full-service, Hi-tech, Business Services, Healthcare, Auto, Real Estate.

Weisler: Do you see different results based on genre?

Khoury: No, the open rate is well is over 80% across the board, and the re-engagment rate is almost 50% THE NEXT DAY.  It’s hard to ignore a video brochure when it comes in the mail, and the data demonstrate that. It’s clear that the power of Direct marketing and direct mail are amplified when video and interactivity are included.

Weisler: Can you break down usage by demo?

Khoury: We can't wait to provide these insights! We will soon have enough first-person data as Marc campaigns around the country continue to report back. We will keep you posted!

Weisler: What are the results of one of your campaigns?

Khoury: On average, 80% open rate, 6.8 times opened for 3.5 minutes watched. 48% reengage after the first day, 27% one week later and over 14% from multiple places.

Weisler: Where do you see Marc two years from today?

Khoury: We hope that Marc introduces video as a key vertical within the emerging IoT space. We will continue to develop the Marc channel around the ability to disperse our digital interactions into an individual's environment. The ability to embed video and measurement revolutionizes experiences that are sent, passed and displayed. Essentially, our mission is: To transform local environments into digital landscapes that serve to communicate, interact and learn

 

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

 

Politics is the Biggest Challenge to Audience Based Buying. An Interview with GABBCON’s Gabe Greenberg.

Gabe Greenberg, CEO and co-founder of GABBCON (Global Audience Based Buying Conference and Consultancy), has an extensive media background working on both the client side (ADT Dealer and Microsoft) and the sales/marketing sides of the advertising marketplace (The Trade Desk, Delivery Agent, Autobytel, Bigfoot Interactive, Vibrant Media). 

But a standard corporate job was not in the cards for Greenberg. “I have had an entrepreneurial spirit since I was quite young, I get it from my father/family,” he confessed. “I have always wanted to help shape the market and be part of something bigger which led to Tina and I starting GABBCON. We saw a gap in the market that we seized and we have not looked back,” he added.  

Charlene Weisler: What are the challenges to audience based buying and selling? And how to overcome?

Gabe Greenberg: The biggest challenges today are political. Technology is no longer an issue. The politics within different sales organizations and the potential for some of them to try to setup additional walled gardens due to unwarranted fears about the threat to price is our biggest obstacle today. Our warning to these companies is to be careful for what you wish for. Don’t make the same mistakes digital did. We have an opportunity to really change the market with new channels like TV, Audio and DOOH – we need to be sure we do the right thing. I think we will (especially with Open AP and other endeavors that have popped up on the periphery.

Standardization is also quite important and GABBCON along with other groups are trying to lead the charge here.  

Weisler: Where do you see audience based buying and selling headed in the next three years? How much of the market will it command? 

Greenberg: As ATSC and BlockChain take hold, video and TV will be a more dominant force in audience buying. NBC betting $1Bn this year on audience is just a tip of the iceberg. I expect that as much as 25% of the TV/Video market will be planned, bought and optimized on audience using some level of sophisticated buying in the next three years. That is quite a significant number (it is larger than the entire programmatic pie today). New channels like audio and DOOH are also taking off and will accelerate the growth of audience based buying (truly cross device)

Weisler: Is Linear TV dead? 

Greenberg: HA No – nor will it be for some time (if ever). TV is the strongest it has ever been and with ATSC 3.0 I expect that TV will begin to take dollars back away from digital.

Weisler: How will the IoT impact audience based buying and selling if at all? 

Greenberg: I do not expect that it will have a negative impact – it will create new device ID’s and targeting opportunities that can be quite exciting.

Weisler: Tell me about the Abbi awards. When did it first launch? Why was it created? What do you hope to achieve from it? Who participated? 

Greenberg: The ABBI awards (Audience Based Buying Innovation Awards) launched last year for the first time – the second annual ABBI’s are open for entries now. We created them because we did not see enough celebration of innovation in the market, in spite of all the word count about the topic and therefore we set the ABBI’s in motion to celebrate all the great innovation in media and marketing as well as media and marketing leadership that is happening. 

The awards range from tech platform innovation (DSP, DMP, SSP of the year) to agency and media/marketing leadership innovation to campaign and creative innovation. We have some of the categories other awards might (Cross Device Campaign of the year, Best use of data, etc.) but we are all about celebrating innovation and audience based buying. For GABBCON it’s all about audience in everything we do. The award itself is even quite innovative in it’s design. Last year’s winners marveled in it’s size and innovative design.

Weisler: What is your recap of this year’s upfront? Who are the winners and the losers?

Greenberg: This year’s upfront has been a mixed year – but for the most part I think the winners are the content owners and producers.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

IoT Data: The Opportunities and Challenges

The interconnectivity of all of our devices and appliances with the internet of things (IoT), and the data that allows us to collect, brings both simplicity and complexity to daily life. As consumers, we can facilitate cross-device usage to enhance our media consumption experiences while juggling the vast array of options for connectivity. For marketers it’s a chance to tap into more and more first-party data sets that assess a consumer’s holistic lifestyle behaviors from media habits to the places we visit and even how we get there.

According to EY, IoT data will enable unprecedented levels of content personalization for consumers and new opportunities for advertisers. Media and entertainment companies are increasingly using highly sophisticated sensors in the areas of 4D, animation, gaming, video images, camera stabilization, and sports, which opens up new experiences for consumers. But at what point does this behavior monitoring, data collecting, and message targeting start to infringe on privacy? It can be a slippery slope from convenience to intrusion.

Read the full article on the Videa blog.