Found yourself lost in programmatic advertising acronyms again? You came to the right place.

Understanding the difference between DMP and DSP is crucial for anyone working in the field, as these are two of the most important tools used to manage and optimize digital advertising campaigns.

Or, in other words, serve your ads to the right people.

This post will help you better understand both DSP and DMP, learn how each of them works, the difference between the two, and what role they play in programmatic advertising.

What is a DSP in advertising?

DSP, or demand-side platform, is programmatic software that enables advertisers to buy advertising placements across various ad exchanges and supply-side platforms (SSPs) and manage digital advertising campaigns. 

One of the key purposes of DSPs is to automate the process of buying digital ads, allowing advertisers to target specific audiences based on such data as demographics, interests, location, user behavior, etc., and optimize the performance of their campaigns in real-time.

Together with SSPs, which are used by the supply side (or publishers), DSPs are a part of the ad selling and buying ecosystem aimed at helping advertisers increase the efficiency of essential processes in online advertising.

Some DSPs may also offer integration with other marketing tools like customer relationship management (CRM) systems or – you guessed it – DMPs, which we will cover later in this article.

How does a DSP work?

For advertisers entering the programmatic space, a DSP is essential to reach the target audience efficiently. 

How does it work?

1. An advertiser has their ads ready and launches an ad campaign using a DSP. 
2. Somewhere on the internet, a user visits a website.
3. DSP receives information about this user from the ad exchange/SSP (connected to publishers).
4. Based on pre-set criteria, DSP bids on available ad placements on behalf of the advertiser.
5. The highest bid wins, and the ad is displayed on the website.
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What are the advantages of a DSP?

DSPs offer a wide range of benefits to advertisers, some of which include:

• Automation and efficiency. By automating the process of buying and placing digital ads, DSPs can save advertisers a significant amount of time and help improve their workflow. Moreover, using internal DSP features, advertisers can easier manage and optimize their campaigns to achieve better results.
• Cost-effectiveness. Using DSPs, advertisers can set their own budget and bid amounts, which can help them control advertising costs and get the highest ROI for their campaigns.
• Global ad inventory. DSPs give advertisers access to a wide range of publishers worldwide while working with a single provider.
• Advanced targeting options. Using a DSP, you can better control who sees your ads. It allows you to narrow your audience to the finest details, such as their socio-economic class, devices they use, when they’re the most active, demographics, and many more. This can help you reach the right people and increase the chances of conversions.
• In-depth reporting and analytics. Once the ad campaign is done, advertisers can access reports, evaluate the performance, and gain valuable insights for future campaigns.
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What is an example of a DSP?

• Eskimi: A full-stack programmatic advertising platform that advertisers and agencies use to reach and engage their audiences globally. For over 16 years, Eskimi has been operating in a number of countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, where brands successfully use unique rich media creatives, advanced targeting, in-game advertising, and premium ad-ops services.
• Adform: Founded in Denmark in 2002, Adform is one of the best-known software for digital advertising that helps advertisers and agencies buy and optimize digital ad campaigns across various channels, including display video, mobile, and social media.
• AdRoll: A marketing and advertising platform focused on helping e-commerce brands grow revenue and save time. The platform enables thousands of D2C brands to run display, social, and email advertising campaigns using automation and personalization.
• DV360: Probably one of the oldest in the market (founded in 1996), DV360 is part of Google’s Marketing Platform, offering end-to-end campaign management features advertisers need, e.g., creative workspaces or automated bidding.
• Epom: Epom is a white-label DSP that you can customize for your needs and use for an effective advertising process. With Epom, advertisers can run display, mobile in-app, native, and video ads on their own terms.
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What is a DMP?

DMP, or data management platform, is a system that helps brands and organizations collect, store, analyze, and activate data from various sources around the internet, such as websites, mobile apps, social media platforms, etc. 

DMPs can collect first, second, and third-party data, which can help advertisers and agencies gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, or in other words, see a full potential customer’s view. 

Therefore, this can lead to a better understanding of specific target audiences, help make better business and advertising decisions in the future, and improve overall marketing and advertising efforts.

How does DMP collect data?

There are multiple types of data DMPs can collect (web and app data, data from ad campaigns, 1st, 2nd, 3rd party data) and several ways they can do it. It’s important to mention that these are not universal and can vary from one service provider to another.

Generally, DMP collects data via:

• JavaScript tags
• Server-to-server integrations
• Application programming interfaces (APIs)
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To understand this process better, let’s take an internal Eskimi DMP as an example and go through the steps of how it collects data via JS tags in real-time:

1. A user visits a publisher – website page (e.g., bbc.com) or an app (e.g., Viber). These apps and sites have ad slots that collects user information which includes, but it is not limited to User agent, geo location, IP, etc.
2. The publisher sends the information to the SSP (e.g., Authorized Buyers, formerly Doubleclick). SSP identifies the user by using cookies and/or more data (e.g., Mobile Advertising ID).
3. SSP adds user data with the ad placement data. From this information, SSP creates an ad signal.
4. The ad signal is sent to different DSPs that compete for the ad signal in an openRTB auction that happens in miliseconds everytime the browser is loaded/refreshed. The goal of any DSP is to win the auction and serve their advertiser ad.
5. Eskimi DSP sends eligable data from the ad signal to the DMP which profiles whether or not the user is seen for the first time. If the user has been seen in the past, the data will be added to the historical data that Eskimi DMP has collected.

What are the advantages of a DMP?

Some advantages of using a DMP include:

• Data collection. The primary purpose and the key benefit of using a DMP is the ability to collect data from any source and store and organize it for future use.
• Audience insights and personalization. Collecting and storing data reduces the need to guess who your target audience is and enables brands to rely on real insights, such as behavior or demographics. This information is essential for creating personalized campaigns that have a higher impact. 
• Enhanced marketing and advertising efforts. The data collected by a DMP can help brands better understand and anticipate the needs of their target audience. Using more precise targeting and showing the right ad to the right people can elevate their marketing and advertising efforts.
• Privacy compliance. Since data is stored in one centralized location, DMP makes it easier to ensure it’s handled in compliance with relevant regulations and laws.
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Overall, using a DMP can help you make more informed decisions, better optimize advertising campaigns, thus driving better results.

What is an example of a DMP?

• Eskimi DMP: Used by Eskimi DSP to foster personalized advertising for Eskimi advertisers. Eskimi DMP collects and stores data that is received from 75+ exchanges that Eskimi DSP is connected to, enabling it to collect over 2bn. profiles.
• OnAudience: DMP that helps businesses of all sizes collect user behavior data from various sources and take full control of it.
• Lotame: A data management platform that allows everyone in the advertising ecosystem to benefit from data collection across all browsers, devices, and platforms.
• Adobe Audience Manager: A DMP by Adobe that helps businesses collect, activate, and analyze data from various sources to improve their advertising efforts.
• Oracle BlueKai: Formerly BlueKai, this DMP allows brands to unify and activate data to drive personalized campaigns across digital advertising channels.
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DMP vs. DSP: 5 key differences

1. Purpose

Although DMPs often go hand in hand with DSPs, those are two different tools that serve different purposes.

While demand-side platforms are used for effectively launching, managing, and optimizing digital advertising campaigns, data management platforms are used to improve them by collecting, storing, organizing, and activating relevant data.

2. Data collection

Both DSPs and DMPs collect and work with data; the difference here is data sources and the depth of insights you can get.

Since data management platforms are created for data collection and management (hence the title), these platforms can offer access to nearly unlimited sources, including web/mobile, CRMs, email and SMS data, search queries and social interests, third-party data, and more. 

Put simply, all kinds of data you might need for marketing purposes.

Meanwhile, DSPs collect and store only campaign-level data (mostly third-party) needed for making bids.

3. Data segmentation

When it comes to data segmentation, it’s safe to say that a DMP is more universal than a DSP as it can serve everyone in the advertising ecosystem, i.e., publishers and advertisers. It means that both the supply and the demand sides can benefit from collecting data and using it for better results.

Moreover, it allows to segment the collected data into various user profiles following different segmentation rules.

In comparison, DSPs are used by the demand side only (advertisers and agencies), and the data they can collect is limited and focused on serving advertisers only.

4. Data management

Returning to the purpose part, we learned that DMP and DSP are used for different things. Data management is exactly what differentiates them.

Put simply, DMPs collect and segment data that DSPs later use to improve ad campaigns.

This data is often portable, and you can export it to multiple DSPs or even other DMPs. Also, DMPs can handle large sets of data from various sources, while DSPs can best function using the information that a DMP provides.

5. Use in programmatic campaigns

Both DMP and DSP are used to run programmatic advertising campaigns, although only one is a must for launching ads.

Without a DSP, you wouldn’t be able to participate in real-time bidding and access the data needed to start a campaign. It’s a platform that connects advertisers to publishers, and to be able to buy placements programmatically, you must be a client of a DSP.

Meanwhile, not having access to a DMP wouldn’t stop you from launching your ads. It’s a valuable and necessary addition, but you can still begin a programmatic campaign without it.

Using DMP and DSP together for the best results

Programmatic advertising connects multiple tools that, when used together, can result in better-tailored, therefore, more profitable campaigns. DMPs and DSPs are just a couple of them.

Working simultaneously, these integrated systems can use data from different sources and help advertisers reach customers in the most efficient and effective manner.

Source: Eskimi

You can run the most delightful and mind-blowing campaign in the market – if the right people don’t see it, you won’t see any return, too. Loss-loss. 

But if you did your homework and analyzed where (and who) your target buyers are, techniques like socio-economic class (SEC) targeting will make sure your ads are in the same place as your audience. 

In short, socio-economic class targeting enables data collection from particular neighbourhoods, allowing companies to identify where their purchasing power is. 

So, how does SEC targeting work, and can it actually help you? In this post, you’ll learn:

• What is socio-economic class targeting?
• Definition and criteria for SEC
• What are the benefits of socio-economic targeting and how you can use it
• Learn about available SEC features
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Let’s jump right in!

What is socio-economic class targeting?

Socio-economic class (SEC) targeting is a technique that groups users into the high, middle, and lower classes based on certain parameters identifiable from their browsing history. 

It’s often predictive and uses stereotypes to describe socio-economic classes.

These classes are thus assigned to six groups:

• Upper class into A1 and A2
• Middle class into B1 and B2
• Lower class into C and D 

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How are socio-economic classes made?

Advertising businesses use rich data points to build a comprehensive system for calculating socio-economic classes. These can include the following:

‍Device Price Range

Presumably, the mobile device you use can indicate your social status. Depending on the price of your device, it’s possible to predict if you’re willing to buy more expensive things. 

For example, iPhone users might spend more compared to, let’s say, Huawei. 

Location

Location signals group people based on the location they’re seen the most. 

Research done by McKinsey shows that people living in capitals or large cities have much higher purchasing power than those who live in rural areas. Primarily because living in an urban area is much more expensive.

Owning a house or renting an apartment, prices of goods and products, or transport – are only some of the factors that often come pricier for city people compared to those in rural areas. 

Location Tags

Our social cues can tell a lot about ourselves, our social status included. Location tags indicate locations where a person was seen most often. 

For example, airports, shopping malls, business centers, and similar places can be attributed to upper-class people. 

Data Consumption Quartiles

This factor divides people based on their data consumption patterns. Naturally, if a user spends little time browsing the internet, we can assume their social status is lower as they don’t have the luxury to stay online. 

According to Statista, Americans living in cities lead more internet-connected lives than those who live in rural areas. As of 2021, approximately 89% of people living in urban areas owned a smartphone. Likewise, internet usage was higher compared to rural areas. 

3G/4G Use 

In this group, users are divided based on the connection type they primarily use, ranging from 2G to 4G. 

If a person is always online using a 4G network, we can assume that they live in a location with a decent network connection and, most likely, higher living standards. 

How does this classification work? 

Now that we’ve seen the types and factors that define socio-economic classes, let’s find out what kind of personalities each category represents. 

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A1 – Wealth Inheritors & Creators

• A1 includes upper-upper and upper-middle class people, who can be briefly described as fulfilled, actualizers, and retired public officials. 
• These are usually mature, satisfied, comfortable, and reflective people who value order, knowledge, and responsibility. 
• A1 class representatives are well-educated and traveled people. They’re top-class by their occupation – including top professionals, ministers, directors in public service, senior management in corporations, business owners, and employers. 

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A2 – Wealth Managers & Politicians

• Known as a lower-upper class, A2 class people are successful, active, and high self-esteem individuals who can access abundant less-sophisticated resources. 
• They’re keen to develop, grow, express, and explore. Such people have high principles and are well-educated, somewhat traveled, and exposed. 

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B1 – High Net Worth Individuals

• Like A2, the B1 representatives are called the lower-upper class. These are successful, career and work-oriented, risk-averse individuals. 
• Opposite to the A groups, people in the B1 class value stability, predictability, consensus, and self-discovery. They tend to commit deeply to the family, have a strong sense of duty, and for that, demand material rewards. 

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B2 – Professionals, Business Men & Women

• Upper-middle class is described as achievers and experiencers. B2 people are upwardly mobile professionals, always forward-looking when it comes to their careers. 
• They have a highly-developed taste which they can moderate by means. B2 class representatives are deeply committed to work and family.
• Career-wise, they are senior managers or small/medium company owners who strive for material rewards and prestige. 

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C – Junior-Middle Level Managers, Business Executives, Artisans

• C group consists of middle-lower class representatives. They tend to have a  mild taste and are often called emulators – people who tend to imitate behaviors of those in higher social classes.
• C class are young, mature, enthusiastic, and impulsive individuals who seek variety and are ready to take risks. These risk-taking personalities aren’t afraid of confrontation if that’s what requires not to go with the flow. 
• They’re politically uncommitted and tend to have conflicting reactions towards some objects. 

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D – Skilled/Semi-Skilled Workers, Clerical Staff, Artisans

• The lower class, also called society-conscious strivers, are the believers and (or) belongers. 
• They’re conservative, conventional people with concrete beliefs based on traditionally-established codes like family. 
• D-class people have established routines and are well-organized around their homes. They value (belong to) social, religious, family structures and organizations. 
• These individuals have little to no sophistication. Occupation examples can be commissioners and directors in public service. 

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Benefits of socio-economic class targeting

The primary advantage of socio-economic targeting is personalization and relevance, which in turn leads to benefits like higher revenue, user engagement, retention, and loyalty.  

SEC targeting enables brands globally to personalize their advertising based on socio-economic groups, i.e., upper, middle, and lower, and reach the right customer. 

Example: telecommunication brands can offer different deals for a relevant socio-economic class: 

1. A business owner living in Washington is likelier to purchase the newest iPhone model with the all-inclusive mobile plan (unlimited messages, calls, and GBs).
2. Whereas their counterpart – a person living far away from Washington, in the middle of suburbs – might be interested in getting the cheapest, more constrained plan. 

Besides, advertisers should only target a particular SEC group in case they have a suitable offer. That is, banks and loan companies can advertise for lower-class people who are more likely to take a loan. 

So, the excellent ICP for SEC targeting tends to be banks, mobile device manufacturers, fast-moving consumer goods, and telecommunication brands. 

SEC targeting use cases

Now, let’s go through some practical examples of how you can use socio-economic class targeting. 

1. Luxury watch store 

Luxury brands – be it jewelry, clothes, or watches – target only high-income people. In reality, such a group constitutes only 1–5% of a country (depending on the country). But you can reach this audience considering their internet usage habits and location. 

If you’re a first-rate watch brand like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, or Patek Philippe, you can target A1 and A2 groups by their location and location tags. Or, if you have some exclusive offers, you can target B1 and B2 neighbourhoods with these more economic product advertisements. 

2. Online bank

Let’s say you’re an online bank or payment provider that offers free virtual cards with zero online payment costs up to a $2000 limit. 

Your target audience, in this case, is most likely people with a middle income. The best option then is to use SEC targeting by choosing B2 and C group individuals. 

3. Grocery retailer 

If you’re a grocery chain (or store) owner aiming to offer first-necessity groceries at the most affordable price, you can set your ad target audience as C and D groups. 

In this case, you’ll use your budget effectively, as your ads won’t be shown to people who aren’t interested in discounted groceries. Instead, you’ll advertise to the ones of relevance.

Eskimi’s SEC targeting features 

• Selection. In Eskimi, clients don’t need to upload any first-party data to enable SEC targeting. Instead, the feature can be simply found on the campaign setup page. 

• Additional targeting. SEC targeting can be combined with any other feature (except PC and TV targeting) on Eskimi DSP. It’s crucial to understand that the more targeting options you apply, the narrower the audience is – thus, increasing the cost-per-thousand (CPM). 
• Reporting. You can check the real-time report in the general report section. There you’ll see impressions and click-through rates by a socio-economic class. 

Wrap up

As the popular saying goes, “Targeting everyone means you’re actually targeting no-one.” Ironic, huh? However, relevancy is key in many business areas, advertising included – that is why you have to get to know your audience really well and think about it long and hard before launching your ad campaigns.

Socio-economic targeting is one of the ways to achieve your goals since it allows you to reach people who are more likely to buy your products. If you’re about to try it in practice, make sure to reach out to the Eskimi team that would be happy to help.

Source: Eskimi

Context does miracles in how we perceive things. Brands are not an exception. 

Imagine your beloved brand shows up on YouTube next to conspiracy videos shouting at you that the Earth is flat. Or that climate change doesn’t exist. That’s what happened to Samsung, L’Oreal, and Danone back in 2017.

Naturally, these crises brought a lot more attention to so-called brand safety and suitability – marketing efforts aimed at mitigating risks and controlling the context in which ads appear. 

So, how exactly can you prevent such situations, and what’s behind brand safety and suitability? 

Bear with us, and we’ll uncover: 

• What is brand suitability and brand safety
• Differences between one and the other
• Why brand suitability matters
• Challenges and best practices

What is brand safety?

Brand safety is all about active efforts to prevent potential negative associations to a brand due to the harmful impact of undesired surrounding content. 

Or, in other words – context that’s risky to a brand’s reputation in consumers’ eyes. 

In online advertising, these efforts are mainly measures to avoid ads showing up next to disinformation, fake news, or content that promotes hate speech or violence. 

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines these core risky content categories: 

• Adult content
• Alcohol
• Hate speech
• Illegal downloads
• Illegal drugs
• Offensive language
• Violence 

Brand safety example

Different brands have different standards for where they like to advertise depending on the image they’ve developed (or are developing).

For instance, Apple is so much in control of its brand image that it doesn’t let villainous characters on the screen use their devices.  

Is brand safety relevant for online marketing only? 

While brand safety isn’t only a concern for online marketing, the era of automated processes shifts the main focus to online ads for most brands. 

Though, there are campaigns like Stop Funding Hate that urge brands to cut off ads in some publications like the GB News TV channel. 

What is brand suitability?  

In comparison to brand safety, brand suitability reflects content’s meaning, context, and possible connotations UNIQUE to a particular brand’s needs. 

Brand suitability is about finding places that serve you and your brand, going a level up from simply avoiding ad placements next to naturally inappropriate content.

It’s normal practice for marketers to maximize brand suitability with the help of adtech platforms by using inclusion and exclusion lists and audience targeting tools. 

Brand suitability examples

• What’s suitable for a healthcare brand will most likely differ significantly from contexts appropriate for an alcohol brand. 
• Marketers working with luxury watch brands will want to avoid content designed for children and seek content aimed at working professionals. 

Getting the best out of interaction with target audiences goes hand in hand with being aware of a brand’s individual image and messaging. 

It’s crucial to ensure digital messages appear in the right settings to prevent any risks and reach target audiences.

Brand safety vs. brand suitability 

In general, brand suitability develops from the primary concept of brand safety. 

The main difference lies in brand safety being not specific to a brand, while brand suitability varies based on a particular brand. 

Brand suitability:

• Extends brand safety from negative context avoidance to seeking positive context to strengthen a specific brand. 
• Calls for a more sophisticated understanding of where marketing assets show up, considering aspects like audience demographics, platform, geolocation, and relevant content. 
• Aims to balance reach and protection per a brand’s individual requirements. 

Brand safety vs. brand suitability: practical examples

1. News sites

Reputable news sites, such as The Wall Street Journal or The Associated Press, can publish in-depth research on global crime stats, including keywords with negative connotations. 

While these keywords might imply risks from a brand safety perspective, it’s actually high-quality content that brand suitability would find appropriate. 

2. Entertainment sites

Entertainment sites can post a review of a detective book that portrays some violent scenes. Again, employing only brand safety measures would prevent ads from being displayed nearby, while from a brand suitability point of view, it can be, in fact, valuable content for target audiences.

What’s the lesson?

Word’s meaning differs hugely depending on the context of the article. Thus, prohibiting websites based solely on keywords can deprive advertisers of a potential source of revenue and a reputable publishing partner. 

Why brand suitability is more important than ever

The numbers don’t lie. 

Brand suitability is a must in your advertising strategy as context is becoming a highly influential factor for customers and how they perceive your business.

Customer trust and affinity are key 

• Gaining a customer’s loyalty is challenging: 43% of consumers have ceased doing business with a brand because they no longer trust it. 
• The possibility for people to create and distribute their own content is expanding with the availability of new content. User-generated content is large, diverse, and difficult to control, whether someone is publishing a video, commenting, or sharing a meme.
• 90% of consumers prefer user-generated content over flashy ads and promotional emails. They are more likely to trust what existing customers have to say about the brand. 

The right context means stronger delivery

• Although 61% of consumers now find internet advertising beneficial, an astonishing majority (82%) believe it’s crucial for a brand’s advertisements to appear on reliable, accurate, and safe content.  
• Contextually aligned ads enhance brand awareness by 93% compared to contextually misaligned ads. 
• The Halo Effect demonstrates neurological proof that an ad’s surroundings significantly affect how consumers respond to the ad. 
• Findings show that consumers view commercials in high-quality web contexts 74% more favorably than the same ads shown in low-quality contexts. 
• The GumGum Research report shows social media backlash affected 47% of the businesses involved in brand safety incidents. 25% were affected by unfavorable publicity, and 13% lost their revenue. 
• Nearly 70% of consumers react unfavorably to brands when they appear next to dubious information, lowering the companies’ likability and intent, according to studies over the past year.

Precisely, 64% say the brand is threatened to damage its reputation, while 70% wouldn’t buy, recommend, or like the brand, which appears in negative contexts. 

‍This study by CHEQ, Magna, and IPG Media Lab demonstrated how consumers’ view of the brand remarkably declined across key metrics after unsafe ad placement:

• 2.8 times decline in willingness to associate with the brand
• 2 times decline in purchase intent 
• 4.5 times decline in feeling that the brand cares about them
• 3 times decline in feeling that the brand is “conscious” 
• 7 times decline in brand quality perceptions 
• 0.5 times decline in the chances consumers would recommend the brand

Brands appear more responsible in consumers’ eyes

According to recent data from Harris Poll and DoubleVerify, consumers hold marketers responsible for the credibility and integrity of the information they advertise on. 

The research by CHEQ, Magna, and IPG Media Lab also revealed that many consumers perceive unsafe ad placement as a deliberate endorsement of harmful content. 

They base their opinion telling that:

• It’s distressing that the brand generates profit through disappointment
• It looks like the brand utilizes shock value 
• The brand states it endorses the negative content 

Brand suitability challenges 

Eventually, advertisers aim to strike the ideal balance between adhering to rigorous brand safety guidelines and obtaining a decent reach. 

So, what are the main challenges in reaching this goal? 

Keyword blocking as the only strategy 

Safety measures and exclusion lists are efficient in preventing your ads from being displayed in inappropriate environments, that’s for sure. 

But if used standalone – it’s become clear that plain blocklists can downgrade your advertising strategy. 

Overblocking or using a harsh approach to remove your ads from any environment that includes a blocked keyword without considering its context can limit reach and scale. 

Example

Oracle’s study discovered that around 80% of COVID-related content complied with brand suitability guidelines. In another case, their client’s blocklist overblocked approximately 33% of the content. 

These examples show how blocklists can result in failed opportunities and wasted ad budgets by restraining their reach and elevating ad costs. 

How brand suitability can help?

Brand suitability brings additional depth by concentrating on both the topic and the context of ad placements. Seeing content through this lens may have a significant influence and level up the pure keyword blocking approach.

On top, brand suitability draws brands to a more reflective approach to the content they place ads next to. As a result, marketers gain more measurement opportunities, leading to increased reach and inclusivity in high-quality content. 

Additionally, it enables publishers to leverage the context provided by brand suitability data for more effective optimization and monetization of their inventory. Of course, with marketers’ requirements in mind. 

Brands need to determine who’s responsible

The digital marketing ecosystem is complex and involves a LARGE number of different players. 

As we’ve seen, it makes it challenging to reach a general agreement on who’s responsible for brand safety and suitability. With no clear responsibilities, it’s hard to implement and maintain standards. 

The survey done by eMarketer reveals how consumers see who’s responsible for brand safety and suitability in different regions. 

• More than half (52%) of the US survey respondents think that brands are responsible for their safety, 13% say it’s media buying agencies, and 11% – ad-tech/demand-side platforms (DSPs).
• The European respondents find brands and DSPs / ad-tech platforms equally sharing the responsibility for brand safety (31% each).

Either way, brands need to be the key part of the game when it comes to brand safety and suitability. Stakeholders and their responsibilities vary depending on the size of your brand. 

MMA Global suggests these potential internal and external stakeholders depending on the company: 

Brands need to find the best moderation solution

It’s been challenging to properly automate the process due to the intricacy of content moderation and advertising management. 

Blacklists and blocklists, which restrict content from showing up on pages containing keywords or phrases deemed “unsafe,” don’t take context, language, or cultural nuances into account, which impacts content safety.

Due to the lack of real-time monitoring, this has mostly placed content moderation in the hands of employees and user reporting. 

Contextual AI, which can read the context rather than merely filter for keywords, has made significant progress in using AI systems for content moderation.

Brand suitability is a complicated issue for marketers, much as brand safety is due to a complex digital ad environment. Because of this, it’s challenging to find a comprehensive solution, and many businesses are now having difficulty implementing brand suitability. 

Developing a brand suitability strategy

The very first step before determining your brand suitability strategy should be answering five simple yet crucial questions:

1. What are my brand’s values?
2. How do we feel about current events happening in the news?
3. How do we want to represent these values to consumers?
4. What beliefs do we want to make known to the public?
5. How do these values need to show up in my media plan?

Knowing your values and image will greatly help you complete the following steps. 

Brand suitability strategy checklist

How advertising platforms work with brand suitability

Most advertising platforms offer several different brand safety and suitability layers. 

They help to ensure that ads appear in a relevant, brand-safe environment, protecting the company’s reputation online.

Let’s explore some of them in more detail by taking Eskimi’s solutions as an example.

Contextual advertising

Contextual advertising, or contextual targeting, is an ad placements’ targeting type when the system buys placements next to selected, whitelisted keywords (as opposed to keyword blocking). 

This can be achieved in two ways:

• By checking URL keywords – if an URL contains any keyword from the uploaded keyword list, ads will participate in the auction for this impression.
• By checking site content – before purchasing an impression, the system will crawl the site’s content and search for keywords from the uploaded list.

As the title already implies, this solution helps place ads in the right context.

Whitelisting/blacklisting

Advertising platforms offer whitelisting/blacklisting solutions to exclude sensitive topics and limit ads to certain categories. 

It means that ads can appear only on previously chosen websites and applications, based on brand preference, and will or won’t appear on (un)wanted placements.

Traffic source content information

In Eskimi, traffic source content information works on two levels: 

• Category exclusion. To make sure the site is relevant to specific ads, the system checks the information provided by exchanges and/or publishers. Since all placements are categorized, sensitive categories, like adult content, betting, violence, etc., get excluded from campaigns.
• Pre-optimization based on historical data.This layer allows to either exclude sites and/or apps that performed poorly in the past or the opposite – show ads on sites that performed well.

This specific solution highlights that brand safety and suitability options differ based on the brand.

External tools and services

In addition to in-house solutions, third-party brand safety platforms, like DoubleVerify or The Media Trust, are usually an integral part of brand safety and suitability solutions “package” that help to offer better accuracy. 

In conclusion

Brand safety and brand suitability should go at the top of the priorities list – for brands and the platforms they work with.

Developing a good brand suitability strategy reduces the risk of compromising brand reputation by appearing in unwanted contexts while also embracing premium content and trusted publishers. Sounds like a win-win.

Source: Eskimi

The goal of every ad campaign ever is to attract user attention and make them convert. With the competition being this fierce, this is becoming more and more difficult every day. 

Using rich media ads in digital campaigns can become that missing piece you were looking for to stand out from the competition and drive more traffic to your landing pages.

Rich media enables advertisers to be more innovative, gives more room for experimenting with original, creative ideas, and can significantly add up to better brand recall and awareness. 

Besides, it can be an effective way to cut through the noise in digital advertising.

In this article, you’ll learn what rich media is, how it can help brands succeed, and go through the top 10 examples of innovative rich media ads to inspire your next ad campaign.

What are rich media ads?

Rich media is a digital ad format that contains advanced elements and features that encourage users to engage with the ad content. 

By using rich media, advertisers allow their audiences to interact with an ad by touching, dragging, scratching, swiping, spinning, playing a game, watching a video, and more. 

While text ads sell with words and display ads sell with pictures, rich media ads offer a wider variety of possibilities to make an ad more attractive to target audiences.

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Rich media vs. standard banners: side-by-side comparison

Types of rich media ads

Rich media offers a wide variety of formats, but ads can also take many different forms.

Here are some of the most commonly used types of rich media ads.

Banner ads 

Banners are one of the most popular ad formats overall, used both for standard and rich media ads – yet, rich media brings an interactive twist to it. Sometimes referred to as rich media display ads, they often have a fixed size and position on the page/mobile app.

Dynamic ads

Dynamic ads, as the name suggests, can be created to slightly change their content based on chosen factors and API integration or manually.

Some examples of dynamic ads could be weather ads (promoting specific products during the set temperature), live score ads (sports games results), or product feed ads (showing current best offers).

Interstitial ads

Interstitial ads are interactive full-screen ads that cover the entire screen of their host app or website. 

This type of rich media ads are designed to appear between content by taking over the screen or at natural transition points. The user always has the option to turn off the ad and continue browsing.

Video ads

Using video ads, brands can deliver their messages in a way that many people actually prefer. In fact, many brands are and continue to do so as online video ad spending worldwide is forecasted to increase by nearly 50% by the end of 2024 in the US alone.

There can also be different ways of showing your video ads, like floating video ads that cover a portion of the site content for a short period, simply using it in rich media banners, etc.

Gamification ads

Gamification ads are ads that use the mechanics of games to increase user engagement and chances of converting them into customers. Those can range from very simple ones created just for the sake of interaction to giving rewards for completing specific tasks.

Floating ads

Floating ads stay fixed on the top of the publisher’s page. A floating ad usually covers a small portion of the site’s content and can be made in different formats, such as previously mentioned video or gamification ads.

Benefits of rich media ads for advertisers

• Higher engagement rate. Everything delivers better results when interaction is involved, and advertising is no exception. Eskimi’s internal campaign data shows that rich media delivers up to 15X higher engagement than standard static ads.
• Better visibility. The variety of rich media ad types allows brands to stand out with their ads and achieve nearly 100% visibility, e.g., using floating banners.
• Flexibility. Standard banner ads limit the ad space for displaying a message, while rich media allows multiple frames, enabling brands to be more creative and advertise on a larger scale.
• Reduced banner blindness. Banner blindness is a phenomenon when visitors subconsciously (or not) ignore any banner-like information on the internet. Rich media ads contain elements that are more difficult (or impossible) to ignore (changing frames, gamification, sometimes sound) and still grab visitors’ attention.
• Multiple performance metrics. For marketers and advertisers, rich media ads provide valuable insights into their ad campaigns as they can track multiple interaction points. Some of those metrics include impressions, engagement rate, reach, display time, interaction and dwell times, and many more that can help build greater knowledge and improve future campaigns.‍

‍Creative rich media ad examples from big brands

Below you’ll find 10 high-quality rich media ad examples from big brands to better understand how they look and work. 

Hopefully, they will inspire your next effective advertising campaign!

1. Ariel

Ariel, a European brand of laundry detergent, teamed up with Eskimi to launch an innovative ad campaign using gamification.

Ariel used an animated rich media ad to promote its product and share its expertise in the field in an interactive manner.

The ad showed a dirty shirt covered in germs, inviting viewers to “shoot” them and clean it up, referring to how Ariel detergent works.

The ad was designed to instantly grab attention and encourage the audience to engage with it. Once all the germs are killed, the player is invited to visit Ariel’s website for more safety tips regarding clothing care.

2. Trolls

DreamWorks, an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs, used video ads to create some buzz around the release of the new Trolls movie.

DreamWorks launched more than 550 advertisements on different platforms across 36 different worldwide markets. The company also used website takeovers on various sites like Amazon and IMDB as their main ad creative. 

Their brightly coloured rich media ads enchanted the audience and proved successful, as the movie earned $346 million internationally.

3. Intel

Intel, an American technology company specializing in semiconductor chips, introduced their new sleek laptop to the public by using 3D technology, enabling customers to actually see the best that its design has to offer.

In addition, Intel utilized 360° video in their advertising campaign with hotspots that displayed to customers the differences between their product models.

This rich media campaign allowed Intel to drive massive brand engagement. It attained more than 35,000 hours of content exposure and 413,000 customer visits to the website.

4. Coca-Cola

There’s probably no need to introduce what Coca-Cola is, but the ad campaign that this soft drink manufacturer launched with Eskimi is truly worth a mention.

Coca-Cola has not only made its ads interactive using gamification, but it also took advantage of people’s excitement that arises from the possibility of winning.

The ad, which is a perfect example of highly engaging content, showed a cola bottle and invited to flip the bottle cap in order to win something. Once revealed, the user-player could visit the website to claim their prize.

5. Sally Hansen

To provide consumers with the best brand experience possible, Sally Hansen, an American beauty brand, allowed users to virtually try on their various Miracle Gel nail polish colors.

However, to do that, viewers needed to interact with Sally Hansen’s ads first.

Ads included the image of changing nail polish colors and invited potential customers to try how those colors look on them. Those who clicked “Try it on!” were directed to the brand’s website where they could use a smartphone camera and “apply nail polish on their nails.”

This advertising campaign incentivized consumers to engage with the ad, and earned a click-through rate (CTR) of 0.08%.

6. Sonic

Sonic, an American beverages brand, promoted a summer deal in 2019 that offered 50% off shakes and ice cream slushes after 8 PM. The brand created brightly-colored rich media ads containing a countdown timer starting when the user sees the ad.

The countdown showed the exact amount of time until customers were able to benefit from a 50% discount. Combined with a flavor match quiz, this helped inform users about the deal, how soon before the deal started, and what flavors to try at their local Sonic Drive-In.

This interactive advertisement also included a “Find My Sonic” button so that the consumer could also know precisely where to head when the time comes, earning them a 6.6% CTR rate.

7. Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo developed a Tetris-inspired interactive experience to run together with streaming video content on desktop and mobile. It highlighted their Control Tower feature, which enables consumers to track recurrent charges.

After viewing a short trailer, consumers were given the option to choose an Easy or Hard mode for stacking. 

Next, they had to do their best to fit as many meal subscriptions as possible into the refrigerator. Once the refrigerator was full, customers were given an evaluation of how well they performed and a follow-up message that only Wells Fargo provides the ability to monitor recurring payments with their new feature.

8. Naivas

Naivas, a leading retail brand in Kenya, launched its rich media campaigns with Eskimi, targeting parents with school supplies promotions.

Naivas went with a floating ad that showed a backpack getting filled with essential school supplies. Once clicked, the ad directed interested parents to the Naivas online store.

The ad appeared at the top of the content on popular websites and had a 6.62% CTR, which is six times above the average rate for display ads. It also drove massive engagement of 21% and achieved an 83% viewability rate.

9. Harley Davidson

To announce a new product line in a creative way, Harley Davidson launched interactive video ads. These ads appeared on Hulu as 30-second videos during commercial breaks and were aimed at familiarizing customers with new Harley Davidson models.

Instead of passively watching an ad, viewers were asked to discover the different motorcycle models within the commercial experience. The audience could learn as much as they wanted about each bike before either clicking out or visiting the website to learn more. 

This campaign was a huge success, earning a 9.9% mobile CTR.

10. Nissan

Nissan, a Japanese car manufacturer, used its brand motto “innovation that excites” to craft a successful advertising campaign. Understanding that no demographic is monolithic, especially the Hispanic market, Nissan decided to let the audience decide in which language they want to be marketed to – English or Spanish.

Nissan then created an interactive video campaign that let audiences to easily switch between languages in mid-experience to increase awareness among Hispanic consumers.

The campaign was very well-received and generated valuable insights, also resulting in a significant lift in brand awareness.

Start crafting your rich media ad campaign

Leveraging rich media is a great technique for your advertisements to stick out as it’s recognized to seize the audience’s attention. An eMarketer study also illustrates that brands witness higher engagement levels (around 16.2%) using rich media advertisements compared to static banners.

Therefore, it can be just what you need to grow your engagement rates and ROI.

Source: Eskimi