Jonas Jonsborg is MD Nordics at Adnami. We spoke to Jonas to get his views on simplifying high impact campaign selling for publishers, and the shift from a performance to a branding focus in digital advertising:

What is Adnami for those who don’t already know, and what is the major industry challenge you are solving?

We deliver high impact digital formats at scale, allowing publishers, agencies and advertisers to keep control, while achieving higher creative impact. 

And what is the specific problem Adnami is solving?

 There are two key issues we are solving with our offering: 

First, we are simplifying what has historically been an overly complex process in which advertisers had to trade high impact formats directly from publishers programmatically. 

Publishers have many different sites and layouts, and if a brand wanted to advertise in several different places within that publisher’s portfolio, the advertiser or agency had no option but to reformat their creative to endless different specifications. 

If they outsourced this to a third party, it would devalue the transaction for both the advertiser and the publisher. Our technology allows publishers to supply templates and lets agencies digitally rework their ads into the different formats required. Crucially, they can then buy ad space programmatically by plugging into the vast range of DSPs with whom we work.

Second, we are perilously close to a cookie-less digital landscape and I think a lot of advertisers are going to be caught short when they can no longer follow people around the internet. 

Tech providers that enable brands and agencies to access first-party data will stand out, as everyone seeks that edge when it comes to targeting. By booking ads directly with the publisher via our platform, brands maintain that critical access to first-party customer data which would be lost if they were to go through an intermediary. 

To some, high impact formats might seem somewhat like old news, what does “high impact” really mean in 2021 and how is it different from before? 

On the contrary, high impact formats remain highly effective at capturing user’s attention and delivering engaging rich media creative for brands who want to make an impact. It is exactly what it says: high impact. You cannot fail to see the ad and remember the brand and, thanks to effective targeting, with ads hitting the right demographic in the right context, interaction rates are high and action is significantly more likely. 

People have become more likely to look past regular banner ads - and that is a huge problem for publishers’ ad offering. I think these days we are bombarded by so much advertising it is increasingly hard for brands to stand out online. Consumers spend a huge number of hours on their computers or smartphones and it is proven that they tune out of some digital advertising. High impact formats draw people’s attention at a time when it is needed more than ever. 

Have recent changes to permitted formats in Chrome affected what you’re doing in this area?

No - our proprietary technology works within the new Chrome formats so is suitable for all browsers on both desktop and smartphones. And we always make sure to meet the regulations set by the industry.

What is the current state of play in performance vs. branding campaign spend in digital, and where does high impact fit within that?

Measuring advertising on click-throughs and direct response measures is a form of instant gratification for marketers. It gives an instant overview of the situation but is very short-term and doesn’t tell you anything about the customer journey before or after that click. 

It’s always important that marketers diversify their measurement strategies and while click measurement has its place, we should be treating digital measurement in a balanced, holistic way. 

We are seeing more and more brands now seek to shift their communications strategy to be more of a mix between performance and brand. While high impact ads work to whatever goal you have for your campaign, depending on the creative and the environment, they typically play to the strengths of a brand campaign because they are all about making a big, bold statement. 

What would you say are the main opportunity areas for publishers in the Nordic markets right now?

Even though we saw some cuts in marketing spend during last year, digital is one of those sectors in which marketeers reported to plan to increase their spend. That makes sense given people’s behaviour through the pandemic, which has seen people rely heavily on the internet for their shopping, communication and entertainment.

I see a big opportunity for online publishers to start talking upper funnel marketing with their clients, and using high impact formats, to help clients to drive brand awareness, instead of being purely performance-orientated.

To find out more about how Adnami works with Netric/Magnite, please get in touch.