AdExchanger Talks is a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. This episode of AdExchanger Talks is supported by StackAdapt.
This week on AdExchanger Talks, we speak with ad veteran Sean Finnegan. Finnegan has worked at agencies, consultancies, tech firms and publishers. Today he advises those parties, as well as brand marketers, as a partner at Chameleon Collective.
Finnegan believes advertising has gained prevalence in society but lost relevance due to its sheer tonnage.
“We’re growing smart humans but we can only process so much messaging on an interaction or per-day basis,” he says.
Escaping this trap of ad blindness will mean investing media dollars differently. “Brands need to look at their portfolio of spending, first of all, to break out of the duopoly and be more diverse in their spending set. Two, is spend more money on fewer executions and work with publishers on time and attention.”
But he acknowledges a mandate to purposely spend more on less media doesn’t sit well with today’s cost-cutting brand mindset.
The answer is to establish new KPIs focused on cost per acquisition and customer lifetime value rather than audience reach. Once you do so, “The whole game changes. Then it doesn’t matter if you’re spending $0.20 or $200 on a CPM. It’s, what is the residual effect to that brand? What money are they taking in on that consumer? If that truly is the focus, then the upfront media dollar conversation becomes a lot easier, the quality increases and the lifetime value of the customer increases as well.”
But he acknowledges, “It’s hard to get people to back out of that cheapest option. It’s going to take a while.”
Also in this episode: AI is real, the agency model has a future, the kids are alright.
