Targeting brand marketers looking for better insights, Undertone Networks has combined products offered by research firm Dynamic Logic, Comscore and others to create its Undertone Qualified Insights program, a “customer learning programs for marketers investing in large or ongoing campaigns.” Read the release.
Alan Schanzer, Chief Strategy Officer of Undertone Networks, discussed the program and its details.
AdExchanger.com: Why create Undertone Qualified Insights? What problem is Undertone responding to in the marketplace?
AS: We are responding to a growing industry challenge. As we’ve deepened our relationships with agency and brand clients, we’ve noticed they’re hungry for insight that takes media planning to the next level. However, they also share a common predicament: lack of a seamless insights process. Analysis often involves multiple vendors and data sets, and analytics teams don’t have the bandwidth to set up, track and provide consolidated reporting on findings for multiple clients. Undertone has an agency-trained insights team to guide clients though the entire process and manage the details.
We’re also taking advantage of our positioning. As an ad network, we see a broad base of unique visitors, given the cross-section of publishers we work with. We also have the advantage of attracting repeat visitors, given that we are focused on top-tier, highly engaging content. Finally, through working with a number of clients within any given industry, we’ve gleaned the expertise to focus on what’s truly significant for an advertiser.
What’s the minimum amount of spend that an advertiser needs to outlay in order to have enough scale to provide accurate advertising effective insights?
The ideal campaign length is 6-12 months, as that would glean enough ad exposure to uncover the longitudinal impact on brands and audiences. However, our vertical programs are fully scalable and customized to client needs, so even a short campaign is a viable candidate provided there are enough impressions to drive changes in the marketplace.
Where do you get your offline datasets?
We partner with the leading online research companies like comScore, who in turn have partnerships with several data collection vendors. In addition, our research partners can also tie campaign performance to client databases. Finally, our process is set up so that we don’t interact with personal data in any way that may trigger privacy concerns.
How does Undertone manage the reporting lag which can occur from offline data and the optimization of online campaigns?
As part of our ongoing reporting process, we issue a variety of studies that measure other aspects of the purchase funnel. This gives us proxies to estimate impact on offline sales before the campaign is over.
What’s been more of a roadblock for brand advertisers and moving budgets online in your opinion: accurate ROI data, privacy concerns around behavioral data and its usage, or a perception that online is a DR opportunity?
Accurate ROI and data privacy are hot buttons, and our UQI packages address both of these needs. Clients are looking for more than just ROI after the campaign has ended. They are looking for ways to predict ROI while the campaign is live, and we’re working on methodologies to give them deeper insight into this. Additionally, our UQI process is set up to manage privacy concerns – we don’t store personally identifiable data.
By John Ebbert
