IAB Europe; IAB It’s your turn
The IAB Europe published a blog entry on Friday with the news that the Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD) has determined that the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), the industry mechanism for transmitting consent signals in the bidstream, is in violation of the GDPR. The decision depends on the classification of IAB Europe as a data controller and not as a data processor.
The APD apparently regards the trading group as a controller, which means that it is responsible for data security or data protection for TCF consent strings, while a processor is an intermediary who has been granted the right by the controller to use consumer data in certain ways.
The decision will be reviewed by other European data protection authorities for a month and IAB Europe will have six months to adapt its framework to the ADP.
Still, such a judgment would be a big deal. The IAB Europe Finally got Google on board with the TCF a year ago – an important step towards monetizing open web inventories via Google demand. And a whole class of Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) was created to manage TCF data signals.
IAB Europe announced in August that it would expand CMP audits and suspend providers before publishers or consumers raise red flags. As a controller, however, this approach is still insufficient.
The reader
The most popular subscription news tactic is the metered paywall – a set number of free articles per month, followed by a hard paywall. But what’s the right number of free articles to show off before flipping the script and asking for a credit card?
“The answer to this question is increasingly: It depends,” writes Simon Owens in his Media and Marketing Newsletter. The further development of this strategy is a dynamic paywall. For example, business stories may trigger a paywall after a few freebies (these readers are more likely to pay as they often cost the subscription), while someone who just scours real estate listings may never see the paywall.
The Globe and Mail has an editorial product crossover, VP Gordon Edall tells Owens. Editors classify stories as either fully paid (premium or hard-to-report stories that people pay for), general-counted content, or free for service journalism or “brand halo” stories that the publisher uses through the Spreading benefits.
“A paywall is really a mechanism to introduce artificial scarcity to encourage conversion,” says Edall. “From the beginning, the paywall was built on the idea that some content was reserved for subscribers only and some content should be measured.”
Wallet blocker
“Surprisingly little is known about the effects of ad blockers on consumers,†writes Prof Vilma Todri of Emory University Business School, who authored a study evaluating the effects of widespread use of ad blockers on consumers, which is due to be published will Marketing Science Journal.
Obviously, with ad blockers, users see much less online ads. But the effects of ad blocking are more tendentious. Digital media is the means of choice for newer brands to get their name out there.
Ad blockers undercut newer, digital-native brands. Since ad blocker users aren’t exposed to new businesses online, they’re more likely to lean towards the brands and purchases they’re used to. People with ad blockers don’t see new brands in search results and programmatic or social media placements, so don’t buy them.
Because of this dynamic, ad blockers are reducing total consumer spending by $ 14.2 billion a year, Todri estimates.
But wait, there’s more!
Pepsi is hiring two new hubs that focus on “digital skills”. [Marketing Brew]
How pop star Zara Larsson sold a seven-figure sum with Roblox. [BBC]
Can social networks ever be friends again? [Protocol]
Investing in people is the future of VC. That’s how it’s done. [The Information]
LinkedIn: Broadsheet Comms Q4 Market Trend Report. [post]
Premium streamers use their TV networks for promotion and advertising. [MediaPost]
