Agency spotlight: How Matterkind helps advertisers reach consumers amid dynamic adtech industry changes

Matterkind’s focus on “addressable activation” is generating strong outcomes for top brands globally. To understand how the Interpublic Group (IPG) company is helping clients navigate the dynamic adtech landscape, we met with a few members of Matterkind’s leadership team to learn more.

Read on for compelling insights from Matterkind executives:

• Elizabeth Schwartz, VP of Business Development
• Mike Miller, SVP of Addressable Activation
• Nancy Hall, EVP and Head of Outcome-Based Marketing

How are brands’ advertising needs changing as the economy begins to grow?

Nancy Hall: As we emerge from the pandemic, brands are more eager than ever to understand the impact their marketing spend has on actual business results. So, they’re seeking solutions that deliver outcomes and a strong return on ad spend (ROAS) to justify future budgets.

What are the biggest consumer trends you're seeing?

Nancy Hall: One important trend is the proliferation of second-party data coupled with new advertising opportunities as some large retailers establish retail media networks. We expect these emerging offerings to become more prevalent and valuable for brands as we move into a world without cookies. These new “walled gardens” will give advertisers the ability to target consumers granularly based on purchase behavior and then understand the impact of their spend through accurate, closed-loop measurement. 

What advice would you give to brands as they continue to adjust to new adtech industry regulations and shifts?

Elizabeth Schwartz: Based on current and impending privacy regulations, as well as the ultimate demise of the third-party cookie, brands need to focus on building out a scalable, first-party database. Using an opt-in model will help to ensure accurate identity so that brands can connect directly with their consumers in a consistent and compliant manner.

How are you responding to third-party cookie deprecation?

Mike Miller: There’s no excuse not to be prepared. We’ve been monitoring the evolution of browser privacy policies, testing & learning, issuing POVs to clients, and adjusting our targeting approach for several years. This includes achieving CCPA compliance and addressing Apple’s initiative to phase out third-party tracking on its Safari browser (ITP 2.0 and beyond). We continue to work closely with our DSP, data, and client partners to test new solutions and ensure we're leveraging our audiences in the most scalable, cost-efficient, privacy-compliant manner possible.

What is Matterkind’s testing criteria in the new consented ID space?

Mike Miller: We consider a number of factors, including cost, syndication time/effort, match rate, scale (reach and frequency), and performance tied to specific KPIs.

How are you approaching ad measurement as the industry shifts away from third-party data sharing?

Mike Miller: We're examining the feasibility of maintaining established scale and performance benchmarks as we test various ID solutions across multiple campaign scenarios. This proactive testing will enable us to have educated discussions with our clients and provide actionable recommendations to help them reach their marketing objectives.

How are you addressing identity and activation?

Elizabeth Schwartz: We’re agnostic when it comes to adtech industry solutions. Utilizing our open and flexible architecture, we're evaluating and testing various partner solutions independently and in conjunction with one another. By simulating a variety of scenarios, we’re able to make recommendations based on specific client requirements.

This could include consented ID graphs, contextual groupings, panel-based solutions, activating first-party data, tapping into second-party data, and more. We believe successful solutions will provide scalability, increase reach, and be interoperable with key parts of adtech/martech ecosystem like buying platforms/partners, measurement, etc.

How has Oracle helped Matterkind prepare for the new targeting landscape?

Mike Miller: Aside from support with pre-bid strategies for certain individual advertisers, we're partnering with Oracle on several initiatives, including:

• Providing our US account teams with COVID insights and ramifications on 3PAV trends so we can respond intelligently and quickly to the changing media landscape.
• Collaboration with the Kinesso Marketplace team (our partner and parent company) on improving our domain allow and blocklists and exploring page-level contextual targeting vs. keyword/URL targeting.
• Working with the KSO product team to provide accuracy reporting against their proprietary device graph.

To learn more about identity, measurement, contextual intelligence, and data strategy, visit the Oracle website.