Making Advertising Better

In a data-driven world, we all expect to interact with the brands we love on our own terms.

Wherever and however we choose to engage, the brands that stand out are those which align with our personal values, serve relevant, respectful experiences, and recognize us as individuals in the moment.

And, going beyond recognition alone, the brands we truly trust are those that act in good faith, using their influence and voice in an authentic, ethical and socially aware manner.

So, as the advertising world shifts – to adapt to third-party cookie deprecation and adopt stronger data privacy strategies – isn’t it time advertisers did better, to break bias, and transcend people’s expectations?

Aligning a company’s mission with the values and principles of its customers; that’s exactly what conscious marketing works to achieve. Bringing a people-first approach to marketing, advertising, process, and ethos across a business, conscious marketing helps brands to embrace a more respectful, relevant, and kind way of reaching people.

In short, it’s a promise to make advertising better.

And, for future-thinking organizations, this is a no-brainer – it means stepping away from poorly segmented, biased, or irrelevant advertising, and towards behavior-based, first-party, data-driven marketing that engages and builds relationships with the people who matter most.

Key benefits of conscious marketing

So, what does ‘conscious’ really mean for a brand?

Choosing to follow a conscious approach goes far beyond a single act of positivity or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Founded in inclusivity and respect, conscious marketing ingrains honesty, accountability, and transparency throughout a business – from its ethos to its actions.

As a result, those who prioritize it, not only build a more ethical business, but enable greater loyalty, more relevant customer relationships, and form a ‘virtuous loop’ across all activities.

Remembering that conscious marketing takes a people-first mindset—for your customers, conscious marketing enables:

From your brand’s perspective, conscious marketing enables:

So, what does a conscious approach to advertising look like in practice?

Examples of Conscious Marketing in Practice

Championing a conscious approach, below are a series of Matterkind and Kinesso case examples to illustrate conscious marketing in action.

Removing bias and increasing audience relevance for a retailer

Part of a conscious approach may include reviewing audience bias, to ensure an advertiser takes a diverse, inclusive approach – and therefore reach a more relevant, yet wider customer base than with previous campaigns.

The case: When onboarding a beauty retailer’s CRM, the Matterkind/Kinesso team evaluated the CRM’s composition, based on the general category shopper population.

The result: The CRM skewed lower in composition for the diverse populations that the beauty retailer was actively seeking, within multi-cultural and generational groups.

As a result, Matterkind created a High-Value Audience (HVA), informed with additional audience composition to enhance areas that the CRM was lacking; to consciously bring messaging to the right, diverse shoppers that the brand was invested in reaching.

Increased performance, and optimized spend for professional services

Serving respectful messaging that’s mindful of frequency and relevant in the moment, rather than interruptive, is another element of conscious marketing.

The case: A professional services company wanted to improve media performance and optimize its digital ad spend; taking a conscious approach to analyze audience overlap, increase relevance, and reduce ad frequency helped it to enhance campaign efficiency.

Results: Using Audience Hub to unify audience data measurement, not only across digital media channels, but also partners, vendors, audiences and tactics, and to highlight audience duplication across campaigns, the business was able to:

Increased impression distribution, frequency management and addressable TV inclusion for CPG and pharmaceuticals

Following an addressable approach that’s based on behavior, and which is mindful not to fatigue, but to support audiences, is one way that this brand used conscious marketing to great effect.

The case: A pharmaceutical leader wanted to reduce linear TV campaign overexposure to households, through addressable TV. A conscious approach helped to enable this consideration of messaging, to attract more relevant viewership, and suppress fatigue.

The results: The integration of addressable TV with national TV viewership, enabled an increased audience reach from 80% to 92%.

Running a national TV reach extension and frequency management analysis, based on viewership, also helped to identify unexposed and Light TV viewership – which in turn increased relevant impressions.

Making Conscious Marketing Work for Your Brand

Beneficial and considerate to your business and your customers, adopting a conscious approach is a wise choice for forward-thinking organizations.

Of course, as with any new approach, making the move can take time to fully activate; so, now is the time to start considering how conscious marketing can work for your brand!

To help you plot your route:

Remember, it’s OK to start small – and test!
Shifting an organization’s mindset, process and technology toward a conscious process takes time! Because of that, it can help to start small – run a test or pilot first to determine what works for your brand. A conscious addressable advertising partner can help you to assess and optimize, as well as support and advise you on where best to begin.

Build the case for your business stakeholders
Securing substantial change sits with your Executives and Board. Again, a conscious addressable advertising partner can help you to build that business case, and advise on what practical results a conscious ethos, process and tech stack will deliver.

Adopt addressable advertising
No matter how a person chooses to engage with you, following an addressable advertising approach (which uses first and third–party data, rather than third-party cookies to display content) ensures behavior-based relevance, flexibility, and that campaigns are always conscious of an individual’s preferences and context.

As the advertising ecosystem moves ever-closer to supporting marketing that’s relevant, recognizes people as individuals, and thoughtfully adapts to their needs, adopting a conscious approach means taking a step towards transformed relevance for your customers – and greater long-term results for your brand. It’s time to create marketing that matters!

Feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or depressed at work? Anxious from simply opening your laptop, or fatigued when responding to an email? When we are feeling burned out, we can write inaccurate narratives about how much control we have over work behaviors. In the new remote environment, many are quickly seeing the effects of burnout, and the impact can be felt long after 5 PM. Maintaining a healthy mental wellbeing is a critical aspect of sustaining our families, workplaces, and communities, and mitigating burnout is necessary to support your mental health.

As I coach, I help Clients to prioritize implementing change where they have control right now. Here are eight ways that may help mitigate the effects of workplace burnout.

Exercise Mindfulness
Being aware and consciously considering your own thoughts, feelings, and responsibilities can help you to take stock of your mental health. Think about how you are feeling internally at this moment, and what may be causing those feelings. Practicing mindfulness can help you to identify feeling frustrated and overwhelmed before you reach a breaking point—allowing you to cope with workplace challenges with a clear mind. I often have to stop clients from thinking about all tasks thru Q4, so make sure to slow down and take things as they come.

Prioritize Self Care
When we are facing mental health challenges, it can be easy to push our own needs and wants to the side. However, making time for ourselves is essential to our overall well-being. To avoid burnout, make sure to set aside time during lunch or after work for yourself and your needs, like reading a good book, practicing yoga, or trying a new recipe for lunch.

Get Quality Sleep
We all know the benefits of a good night’s sleep, but life oftentimes gets in the way of that becoming a reality. When you’re experiencing burnout, fatigue may also be at an all-time high, leading to a need for more sleep, but changes to your sleep habits can be hard. Setting (and adhering to) designated bedtimes and putting devices away early can help you regain some of your energy. Sticking to a bedtime schedule can help you feel more grounded in your routine.

Cut Back on Meetings
While meetings can be very helpful, meetings where people feel unheard, unnecessary, or unseen can be major sources of burnout and frustration. Focusing on strategies to run more productive and inclusive meetings can help to cut back on unnecessary touch bases, improve team morale, and generate more positive results. Deciding if a meeting is necessary to host or join and creating an agenda can dramatically cut down on negative associations.

Set Expectations
Especially in new remote environments, it’s easy to end up grinding away well past normal working hours. A major contributor to burnout is the lack of separation between work and home. However, there is a lot you can do to protect your time (and peace) outside of 9 to 5, for example…

Let your team know that you will be offline for specific time periods. Make sure to communicate these desires to your manager in order to level-set expectations and foster a relationship of honesty and trust. Don’t forget to be realistic—completion can be a great job even when it’s not perfect. Set realistic and feasible expectations about your own performance.

Get Outside!
It may sound cliché but getting outside is a great way to improve your mental and physical health. Taking a brisk walk or jog each day can help to alleviate built-up stress, provide a (literal) breath of fresh air, and give your body a chance to relax from the hunched-over desk position many of us linger in all day long.

Identify Stressful Tasks
Resentment is usually a sign we don’t want to do something. Everyone has certain tasks that make them groan, but self-awareness is key in identifying the reason. Why such frustration? What is triggering the emotion behind the task? When we procrastinate the stressful tasks, we make things worse for ourselves. Try tackling the hardest tasks when you are most alert and have the most energy. It’s a great way to increase your likelihood for success and ultimately your confidence in getting the work done.

Lean on Others
Burnout can be extremely isolating, and it can be easy to fall into depressive patterns and withdraw. Being transparent and sharing your frustrations and experiences is one of the most powerful ways to talk about burnout in the team. Hearing that others may be feeling the same, whether they be friends, family, or teammates, can be very helpful, and lends itself to good conversation around solutions.


At Matterkind, we are dedicated to supporting employee mental health and prioritizing emotional well-being. We strive to create a safe environment that encourages everyone to be open and to ask for help when needed. We recognize how vital it is that we help facilitate burnout conversations and raise awareness of the importance of good mental health. If you find yourself struggling, reaching out to a coach can be a good way to handle your frustrations. Coaches help clients identify strengths and strategies to change work behaviors and reduce burnout.

Share different ways that you prevent burnout with us on Twitter to continue the conversation.

For many, Pride Month is seen as a time of parties, rainbows, parades, and other celebrations—but its origins are far from festive. In 1969, police raided a gay club in New York City, the Stonewall Inn, setting off a series of protests and violent conflict that would become a major spark for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Pride Month is a recognition of the resilience and impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other LGBTQIA+ individuals have had on progressing acceptance, visibility, and rights for their communities. Uplifting and recognizing LGBTQIA+ coworkers, friends, and family is not just a symbol of progress, but also an acknowledgment of all the work that’s been done on behalf of our community leaders and members alike. Not only that, but it’s a symbol of the continuity of our work, and acknowledgement of the work that still needs to be done. While we have come far in the fight for equal rights and acceptance, there will always be work to do as society shifts.

While coming out is often portrayed as a singular experience, in reality, that isn’t exactly how it always goes, or was for me. Being queer has meant for me that I am constantly coming out, at various points, throughout my life—when growing up, chatting with new coworkers or friends, and sometimes even to total strangers. It can be uncomfortable at times, depending on where you are or who you’re speaking to, and there is always the risk of hostile reaction or uncomfortable silence, or the relief and genuine joy in acceptance and support. In past situations, communities, organizations, and workplaces, I’ve been met with acceptance, indifference, surprise and/or discomfort, and don’t often know which one to expect walking in. In workplaces, this could mean I feel supported and welcome, or feel unsupported or unwelcome, even in supposedly open-minded environments. Being gay is not a political statement, it is part of who I am. And that means that in my daily lived experience, there are always moments of pride and moments where I realize there is still work to be done.

I also recognize that I operate in a position of great privilege compared to some members of the LGBTQIA+ community, being a cis-gender, white man who grew up and lives in the Bay Area, a historically queer-friendly place. I was lucky to grow up with an accepting family and community, something not all queer people have the privilege of. It is wonderful to have allies for the LGBTQIA+ community, but Pride is also a time to ensure space is held not just for the more privileged members, but the most underprivileged above all—it is still a form of protest to be queer, and there is work to be done to make sure all members of our community feel represented in society and under the law. Even in our joyful moments at Pride celebrations and supporting LGBTQIA+ artists, leaders, musicians, and celebrities, we must remember the hardships and discrimination many members of the LGBTQIA+ community still face. It is also an opportunity for employees to consider and advance their workplaces to create space for their LGBTQIA+ coworkers.

At Kinesso, along with its subsidiary Matterkind, they understand that space needs to be made. Nobody bats an eye when I mention my partner, and I don’t even need to state it to be understood. The inclusion efforts goes beyond just verbal affirmations, and many LGBTQ+ employees hold prominent and visible roles. As the Social Media Producer, I’m able to have a real say in the Matterkind voice in public forums, which allows me to offer more sensitivity and awareness around certain topics. By working directly with the IMPACT DEI group, I’m able to have a hands-on approach with DEI content, and amplify voices across the company. It also means I have an understanding of the need to amplify other voices too, not just LGBTQIA+ individuals like myself, but the wide plethora of diverse, intersectional voices that make me proud to work at Kinesso and amplify our community.

Matterkind doesn’t just talk the talk, either—earlier this year, our parent company, IPG, was ranked as one of the Human Right’s Campaign’s (HRC) Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality 2022, and remains in the top category of the HRC corporate equality index. Additionally, as part of the 2021 Great Place to Work® Trust Index© Survey, over 98% of employee respondents agreed that employees here are treated fairly, regardless of their sexual orientation. Here, I’m able to be part of fostering an environment of care, compassion, and confidence for all employees, at all levels, regardless of their backgrounds.

I’ve never worked at a company so welcoming of all differences. Matterkind strives to make everyone feel welcome and embraces all backgrounds to the fullest.

If you’re looking to join a company that puts its people first, visit our careers page at https://kinesso.com/careers/.

Your brand might be thinking about internalizing some aspects of media management for a variety of reasons. Maybe you want to take more control of your customer data? Or perhaps you want more transparency into media activation? And there’s a good chance you also want to reduce costs.

These are all valid goals, and your agency partners should be there to support you in achieving them. Whatever portion of your operation you want to internalize, there will always be a role for agencies to play in supporting you with complementary services, technologies and teams, as well as offsetting any pain points you encounter along the way. You can learn more about how this hybrid approach to media operations might work in our recent post.

When brands set off along the path to internal media management, most of them quickly encounter operational obstacles, and almost all discover the investment in capital and resources is far greater than they expect. From hiring teams to integrating systems, internalizing media is a big undertaking. Timelines are inevitably pushed out and budgets have to increase.

For these reasons it’s vital to level set expectations before you begin the journey of internalizing media management. And we’re here to assist you with that.

Matterkind’s Advisory Services team is well positioned to work with brands that are considering internalizing media management. We can help you understand what you really want to achieve, what is possible and what it will take to get there. We take a holistic approach to evaluate where you are currently and where the gaps are, so we can recommend a path forward. This helps you to be realistic about resource, time, and budget requirements, and prevents your brand biting off more than it can chew.

Level setting expectations is a two-part process:

Stage 1: Getting everyone on the same page

The first, and arguably most important step in setting expectations is making sure everyone across the organization agrees on what they want to achieve.

Most brands with the resources to consider internalizing media will be large organizations with many different lines of business, each with its own operating principles. It’s likely each team will work to its own KPIs, whether that’s pushing brand metrics, generating leads, or driving sales, so creating a single in-house team to support all of these is challenging to say the least.

Resolving internal conflict is a key part of this initial phase. There are likely to be some teams or individuals that are committed to the idea of internalizing media, while others aren’t convinced of the benefits. Some may doubt the brand’s capacity to support the shift from a financial or operational viewpoint. It’s very rare to find a brand where every team is in total agreement on how they want to manage media internally.

To make sure everyone is on the same page at this critical, early stage, Matterkind performs an audit known as the Maturity Canvas. This combines stakeholder interviews and in-depth questionnaires across multiple functions to find out what different teams are looking for. From the results of this audit we’ll put together a mission statement, around which everyone can be mobilized. This mission statement is continually refined until your entire organization is in agreement about what it is working towards.

Stage 2: Auditing the tech and the team

Once the entire organization is aligned around a mission statement, the next phase is to explore what advertising and marketing technology the brand already has internally and determine what else is needed to support the plan.

In addition to looking at which platforms are present, this also means determining whether systems are already integrated or whether they are managed in silos. It includes checking whether the brand has relationships with multiple inventory suppliers with different specialties. It involves looking at how business intelligence is managed, how data flows across the brand’s systems, who has access to that data, and how it is being modeled. And it means finding out whether the brand has capabilities around optimization, consent management, brand safety, verification, and audience value analysis, to name but a few.

This evaluation is designed to reveal any gaps in your brand’s tech stack, determine what additional tools or platforms are needed, and explore how best to deploy them.

Alongside the technology audit, we can also help brands with a people assessment to understand whether they have internal talent capable of carrying out their media management plans. If so, we can help integrate these teams and ensure they are rowing in the same direction, rather than competing against one another to meet the goals of different marketing departments.

If internal talent does not exist we can help brands determine what an operating structure might look like, and the new roles they might need. This could include ad ops and campaign managers and strategists, as well as data scientists and analysts.

Hiring the team required to internalize media management can have a big impact on the organization, which isn’t always obvious at the outset. We can support by creating job descriptions and helping with the recruitment process. We can also deliver custom training and seminars, both for new and existing team members.

Working towards a hybrid approach

The two stages outlined above are vital to help you understand what internalizing media management really means to your brand and what is involved in achieving it. It also reveals ‘in-housing’ is not an all-or-nothing proposition.

With a better understanding of what they want, the vast majority of brands opt for a hybrid approach to media management rather than trying to build an entire internal operation. The ideal model varies greatly depending on your brand’s goals, resources and capabilities. But overall the hybrid approach enables you to focus on the things that really matter to you, while still enjoying complementary support from your agency partners in the form of managed services, technology platforms and experienced people.

By level-setting expectations, we can make internal media management work to meet your brand’s goals, while still maintaining valuable agency-client relationships.

Recognizing the value that employees bring to Matterkind extends beyond saying “thank you.” The talent our employees bring every day is what allows Matterkind to be a thriving, diverse global community. Every month, Matterkind spotlights individuals from across the globe who have gone above and beyond. These employees are known as our Ascenders of the Month, and you can learn a little more about them below.

Jack Bewlay
Associate Director of Addressable Activation
As the Associate Director of Addressable Activation, Jack spends his time working on planning and execution. His favorite thing about working at Matterkind is the people he gets to interact with every day. Jack’s coworkers said they would describe him as “stoic,” his favorite board game is either Monopoly or Risk, and his favorite card game is Spades. Jack is also a US Marine Corps veteran, and in honor of Military Appreciation Month last month, we’d like to thank him for his service!

Alejandra Ignorosa
Director of Addressable Strategy
Alejandra is the Director of Addressable Strategy at Matterkind and focuses on leading addressable strategies and campaigns operations for UM and Thrive clients. Her favorite thing about working at Matterkind is having the opportunity to propose, explore, and attempt new challenges, as well as the chance to help her team to grow and learn from mistakes. Alejandra’s favorite season is autumn because she loves the colors of the trees, the weather, and hearing the crunch of crisp leaves under her feet! Her coworkers would describe her as “always willing to help.”

Sonia Joseph
Senior Manager of Addressable Strategy
Much like Jack, Sonia says her favorite thing about working at Matterkind is the people. As the Senior Manager of Addressable Strategy, her coworkers would describe her as “the Matterkind Wikipedia,” and always readily available to answer questions about the organization. When asked to describe her team in three words, she said they are cute, caring, and helpful!

Lara Sánchez Orusco
Campaign Manager & Process Manager
As the Campaign & Process Manager, Lara Sánchez Orusco leads up the J3 team. She loves working here because both the J3 team and the Matterkind team bring, “knowledge, empathy, and are always happy to provide help.” Her coworkers would describe her as resolute, and she always tries to provide solutions to the problems she may encounter. One thing she keeps on her desk are plastic dinosaurs—she has many that she uses to play with when she needs to concentrate!

Here at Matterkind, we believe in the strength of every employee, and the initiative of every team. We are much more than the sum of our parts, and our culture is built on lifting each other up, caring for our communities, and making a positive impact. Interested in joining our collaborative environment? Check out our open positions now.

Trust is key in building a great workplace for all, so at Matterkind, we focus on fostering an environment of care, compassion, and confidence that led to our certification as a Certified™ by Great Place to Work®. More than 86% of survey respondents reported that Matterkind is a great place to work, compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company, and we are committed to increasing that every day. Get to know more about what makes Matterkind a Great Place to Work® from our employees across the country.

Joshua Rundle, Director, Addressable Activation and Strategy

I really like the hyper-conscious work-life balance, particularly during the pandemic. There is always a reminder from all levels of leadership to take breaks, and there is a focus on impact rather than hours worked. The “Kind Days” are a huge reflection of this, as they really force people to relax.

Megan Ma, Associate in Addressable Activation

The two main things I love about Matterkind are the work-life balance and the inclusivity!

Liam Toman, Associate, Addressable Activation
I really appreciate the culture of open communication, which is conducive to the needs of continued learning, i.e., feeling safe asking questions.

Aaron Nahas, Director, Addressable Media
Matterkind continues to be a center of knowledge in the addressable media space. Even with all the frequent changes in our industry, Matterkind continues to leverage its resources and networks to make sure the teams have a finger on the pulse of the media industry and make the best plans for how to navigate their client’s brand to new heights.

Laura Gonzalez, Director of Addressable Strategy
The Matterkind Strategy and Activation teams are some of the hungriest to learn people I’ve worked with, and yet everyone is very willing to lend a helping hand regardless of seniority.

According to Great Place to Work® research, job seekers are 4.5 times more likely to find a great boss at a Certified™ Great Place to Work®. Additionally, employees at Certified workplaces are 93% more likely to look forward to coming to work, and are twice as likely to be paid fairly, earn a fair share of the company’s profits, and have a fair chance at promotion.

Looking to grow your career at a company that puts its people first? Visit our careers page at https://kinesso.com/careers/.

When it comes to celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world, we can all agree that our focus should extend far beyond Women’s History Month in March.

At Matterkind, gender parity is an important pillar in the way we lead, run, and build our organization. We have made great strides, but we still have important steps to take. To continue our conversations around growth and empowerment, we connected with some of our strong female leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to learn about their experiences. Listen firsthand as Micaela, Rashmi, and Lani share the key moments in their journeys where bias has been a challenge, and how they have overcome it.

Micaela Soyza | Head of Matterkind Malaysia

On shifting the onus: “I think the question shouldn’t just be for the women…there also should be an onus on the organizations as well as people in leadership positions to bring about the change, to break this bias.”

Rashmi Balakrishnan | General Manager, Kinesso Malaysia

On handling bias: “[Early on in my career], I was the only female developer [on my team], and I was assigned the typical task of taking meeting minutes in every meeting. The responsibility for office house-jobs should be equally shared in a round robin manner.” – Rashmi

Lani Jamieson | Head of Client Solutions Matterkind APAC

On the responsibility of leaders: “If you stay quiet, you’re reinforcing that the behavior is okay.” – Lani

Breaking the bias in our communities starts small, and the work that needs to be done isn’t easy. It involves making space for the voices of marginalized groups, taking active steps to shrink the equity gap, and uplifting female leaders so they can succeed. Matterkind is ready to embrace these challenges, as we look forward into 2022 and beyond.

At Matterkind, we recognize the value of our employees and the talent they bring every day. Without the strength of our teams, we would not be able to grow into the thriving, diverse community we have established here today.

Every month, Matterkind spotlights individuals from across the globe who have gone above and beyond. These employees are known as our Ascenders of the Month, and you can learn a little more about them below.

Pablo Abreu, Director of Addressable Strategy & Activation
Pablo Abreu is the Director of Addressable Strategy & Activation at Matterkind, working on various accounts. Pablo loves “how bright and resourceful everyone is,” and the true sense of community at Matterkind. “I appreciate how we all support one another in so many different ways, everyone has so much to offer, and I find myself constantly learning.” Pablo thinks his coworkers would describe him as “thoughtful,” and if he could have any superpower, he would want the ability to heal others.

László Farkas, Head Of Technology for DE
As the Head of Technology for DE, László is responsible for the development and the maintenance of the in-house tech stack. He focuses on delivering quality, data-driven insights to his colleagues across teams. László constantly feels amazed by the thriving work culture displayed at Matterkind, and the different paths you can choose within the organization to develop a greater sense of ownership. He thinks that his coworkers would describe him as “detailed,” and if he had to describe his team in three words, he would say that they are, “such great people!”

Johanna Lavini, Managing Director
Johanna Lavini is the Managing Director of the Peruvian Market, and is just shy of celebrating one year at Matterkind! Above all, Johanna really loves the diversity here at Matterkind, as well as the shared knowledge around technology and data. When asked to describe herself in one word, Johanna thinks that “leader” describes her best, and that her coworkers would agree. She describes her team as “intrepid, enthusiastic, and curious.”

Akshat Singh, Programmatic Manager
Akshat Singh is the Programmatic Manager and has been at Matterkind for two years. He loves the breadth of learning that the Matterkind community offers and is focused on helping clients grow and succeed by engaging with their audiences. Akshat thinks coworkers would describe him as a “Jolly-Good-Fellow,” (which we love!). If Akshat ever writes an autobiography, he will title it Order in Chaos.

We believe we are so much more than the sum of our parts and believe in the strengths of each individual and every team. Our culture is built on lifting each other up, caring for our communities, and making a positive impact. Interested in joining our collaborative environment? Check out our open positions now.

The trend for brands to internalize media management is one that waxes and wanes, oftentimes becoming a hot-button operations issue before returning to the back burner.

If your brand does consider making this move, the somewhat misleading phrase ‘in-housing’ will inevitably be mentioned, sending internal stakeholders and agency partners alike into a spin. There’ll be visions of having to develop an internal mini agency to manage everything from audience and data through to activation, optimization and analytics. Which is a tremendous investment.

The reality is very few brands actually want this level of internal media management. Even fewer have the resources and expertise to make it work. Most are looking for a hybrid situation, where they take a more hands-on role in the specific aspects of media that are really important to them, while leaning on managed support from agency partners for the bulk of their operations.

Far from being a choice of extremes between a fully agency-managed model or a fully brand-managed model, you can find a sweet spot that works for your brand on the vast spectrum between the two.

The Hybrid Approach Explained

A hybrid approach to media management can take a variety of forms. And it looks different for each brand, depending on goals and priorities as well as internal capabilities. You may want to just take on a small portion of the operation, such as segmentation, or you may want to internalize activation while your agency focuses more on education and strategy.

One of the more common hybrid models is to split the audience component and the activation piece, with the brand managing one and the agency managing the other. But even this model takes a variety of forms.

Some brands prefer to internalize intelligence and manage their own data, with the goal of taking ownership of the customer relationship. They may want to build and model audiences themselves, but then still push those out to their agency partner to activate. These brands don’t necessarily have the teams or core functionality to activate media internally, and often have no wish to do so.

On the flip side, other brands want to do the activation component themselves, with agency support for the data and intelligence piece. This is because brands often struggle with how to operationalize intelligence. They might get a seat on DV360 and hire an activation team, but still leverage their agency partner’s interconnected suite of applications to analyze audiences, derive insights, create segments, and syndicate these out to all the different channels and platforms.

A hybrid approach to media management is most effective when it takes workload off your brand’s internal team, allowing it to focus on the aspects you see as most important. Agency partners deliver valuable services and functionality to complement your efforts and support your goals.

There are several reasons why hybrid is a sensible approach to internalizing media operations. These include:

Ensuring Innovation Not Stagnation

Media and marketing move quickly, and agencies are set up to keep pace with new ideas and trends. But that isn’t necessarily the case with internal brand teams. When brands have a small, tight team working a particular way it’s easy to stagnate—with an immediate impact on performance.

If your brand does internalize some of its media management, there is still an important role for agencies in preventing stagnation and driving innovation. Agency partners can bring expertise around new and emerging trends or channels, provide ongoing training and support, or help with onboarding new technologies.

Internalizing some aspects of media rarely means an end to agency relationships as you’ll need to tap into those partnerships to stay fresh and relevant.

Reducing Financial Investment

One thing that is often overlooked when brands consider internalizing operations is the sheer cost involved. Particularly the amount they will need to spend on technology platforms.

Assuming you don’t already have demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad servers, audience management platforms, and customer data platforms (CDPs) in place, you’re going to have to either build these capabilities from scratch or spend a great deal with third-party providers to access them. Entering into costly bi-annual contracts and onboarding a huge range of platforms is often far less appealing from a financial perspective than making use of the technology suites your agency partners bring to the table. A hybrid approach, where you can still use your agency’s tech platforms, can offset a lot of the expense.

Getting the Right People for the Job

Of course, it’s not just technology that contributes to the cost of internalizing media management. There’s also the investment required to hire a whole team of people to support these activities.

These are highly specialized roles so your talent acquisition team will have to learn how to recruit for ad ops, campaign management and strategy, and data science and analytics roles. Attracting the right talent and keeping it can be a real challenge. Your internal team is a great environment for people to get trained up but, with a potential lack of upward mobility and opportunity, there’s no guarantee they’ll stay for the long haul.

A hybrid approach means your internal team still benefits from agency support and expertise. This could mean help with recruitment and training, or it could mean providing an overflow facility to ensure operations run smoothly if you have resourcing issues or team disruptions. And of course, the agency is also on hand to help with strategy.

The Many Faces of In-Housing

When the term ‘in-housing’ is used to describe internalizing media, it suggests an all-or-nothing proposition, but this simply isn’t the case. There are many ways for brands and agencies to share the workload.

A hybrid approach allows you to focus on the specific elements that are most important to you, while your agency supports and complements your efforts through a combination of managed services, people, or technology. It is a far stronger proposition than a fully ‘in-house’ model and allows brands and agencies to maintain productive, mutually beneficial relationships.

Marketing has changed dramatically in the last two years, especially when it comes to where and how budgets are utilized. Many businesses felt the financial squeeze of the pandemic, where tight budgets created limited advertising options. Additionally, the needs of the average person were changing—from in-store shopping to homebound online shoppers. We saw that what marketers needed during this time, and going forward, was flexibility above all.

With this shift in habits, we knew marketers needed more options, and we were happy to provide them. As everyone spent more time at home, marketing efforts and technologies were shifted to reflect that. Dotcom marketing, streaming video-CTV, YouTube ads, and QR codes transitioning from TV to mobile became the focus, all while still adhering to an audience-first approach. Rather than pushing struggling businesses into a fixed payment schedule, we encouraged marketers to explore our Outcome Based Marketing solution. With this measure, teams were able to feel at ease knowing they were only paying a single CPA, instead of separated CPM for display and CPC for search.

As marketers look at the rest of 2022 and beyond, there are three key technology trends that require special attention. These trends will shape the future of AdTech, MarTech, and marketing overall.

1. The Emergence of Retail Media Networks & Their Data

Most retailers are now offering media and purchase data to other brands. This data has now become “the gold standard”—opt in compliant, deterministic, new, active, and accurate. This kind of data is a goldmine for most marketers, and allows brands to engage with people in a meaningful way across channels to drive sales in store and online. In fact, more than 75% of brands have seen an increase in ROI thanks to retail media. Best of all, it is not reliant on cookies, allowing for a better method of compliant data collection to pave the way. Brands need data, and retailers have more than enough to spare. Read more about the shift to first-party data in blog post by Elizabeth Schwartz, VP of Commerce Solutions, here.

2. Total Convergence of TV and Digital
As people switch from watching on a TV, to reading on a tablet, to browsing on mobile devices, the transition between devices is becoming even more seamless. Newfound QR comfort following the pandemic has also made the shift from CTV to mobile even easier, as a unique QR code displayed on CTV provides a more streamlined jump that people are willing to make. As a result, single marketing strategies across TV and digital channels aren’t just possible, but thriving. This process also allows for more holistic, efficient marketing campaigns, as it dedupes the overlap between partners in the same channel, saving brands money and giving people a better experience.

3. Shift From Channel-Led Planning to Audience-Driven Planning
Leading with a people-first approach doesn’t seem like such a novel idea, yet many are only just starting to embrace it. This shift in planning has allowed for precise and consistent messaging across all channels, which allows for better personalization and reach of advertisements. Moreover, this provides people with a better overall experience and better brand perception This is one of the pillars of conscious marketing—brands must take a more respectful and people-led approach to communication, delivering the right message to the right person.

As we face a cookieless future, we know marketers will require increasing flexibility in their marketing tools. The ever-changing data and compliance landscape, evolving pandemic needs, and new technological advances, will continue to demand creative digital solutions. Observing and monitoring key industry trends like these will help marketers succeed and stay ahead of the curve.

Matterkind drives better business outcomes while putting the customer experience first.
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