Hawk : the mobile platform goes desktop

Hawk, also known as Tabmo, is for the time being a platform specialized in mobile advertising. They guarantee access to a large premium inventory in Belgium and worldwide. They are specialized in video but had recently opened their inventory to display buying.

As of May 6th, Tabmo will open its video inventory to desktop. The goal is to allow to have a complete campaign on multiple devices : mobile, tablet and desktop.

For the launch of that new opportunity, Tabmo will only focus on video. But in the long term, the objective is also to allow it with display bannering. To buy that inventory, it’s necessary to use Hawk/Tabmo platform, like before for the mobile campaign.

For the start of that action, desktop has to be seen as an extension of mobile campaign on Hawk. Not all the mobile targeting (such as geotargeting, drive to store, …) will be available on desktop.

Hawk has already a large and premium inventory. By adding desktop to the offer, they are strongly increasing their potential.

Outbrain to acquire Ligatus, and become a major player in native

Outbrain has recently announced an agreement to acquire Ligatus. This acquisition should be finalized by the end of the second quarter of 2019.

Gruner + Jahr, owner of Ligatus, becomes a minority shareholder of Outbrain. 

As a result of this move, Outbrain will integrate all of Ligatus' assets into its own offer. By assimilating to its network the publishers currently working with Ligatus, Outbrain will strengthen its positions in Europe, a market where Ligatus is much better established. The company will have more than 1,400 additional premium publishers among its partners.

Both entities have a partnership with major Belgian and international publishers that allows them to have a dedicated location on these sites. With contextual targeting on large media sites, Ligatus and Outbrain native ads allow advertisers to drive their awareness and performance campaigns across all platforms.

This acquisition means that Ligatus will  use Outbrain technology. That could be an issue as Ligatus uses a technology that has proven itself for a majority of our campaigns across all sectors. Even if it will not change much in the commercial teams, this merger decreases the number of players on the market: as it reduces competition, it will potentially affect prices and terms of negotiations. 

Video format available via Ligatus in IO and programmatic

Ligatus  has recently introduced the first video format in its portfolio. This new native and expandable video format is integrated into the current placements of Ligatus smart boxes within the publishers' environment.

The video starts when it is visible in the player and stops when it is no longer in-view like a classic In-Read video format. It works on an opt-in system where the sound is off by default. The video disappears when completed and is replaced by other Ligatus ads.

This technology can support the VAST 2.0 formats and VPAID 2.0 Integrated Media. There is a maximum duration of 15 seconds. The impression is counted when the player is visible at 50% on the screen and when the video is viewed during at least 2 seconds (IAB standard)

The vCPM  is € 4.5 for IO purchase meaning that Ligatus is in charge of the optimization of the campaign. The performances in terms of CTR are between 0.05% and 0.09%. Viewability rates vary between 55%  and 70%

For the moment first results come from programmatic tests via Open Exchange. The saleshouse is not able to provide direct purchase results yet but first campaigns will be reported soon.

Women Packs Roularta-Ventures

Roularta Media and Ventures combine their digital assets into two packs aimed at female audiences.

Women De Luxe consists of Elle.be FR/NL, Marieclaire.be FR/NL, Gael.be/Feeling.be and Weekend.be FR/NL. It is aimed at highly educated active women aged 18 to 44 years, 

The Women pack is broader: it is composed of the following websites: Elle.be FR/NL, Marieclaire.be FR/NL, Gael.be/Feeling.be, Weekend.be FR/NL, Femmesdaujourdhui.be, Libelle.be, Femmesdelices.be, Libellelekker.be, Femmesmaman.be, Libellemama.be, Flair.be FR/NL, Fashionista.be, Plusmagazine.be FR/NL, Nest.be FR/NL, Psychologies.be FR/NL and finally Decoidees.be/Actiefwonen.be.Virtually the whole offering of both sales houses. 

Both packs may be used via display including video, dedicated mail and native adverrtising.

Belgian content sites have a global viewability score of 55%

A consortium of Belgian content publishers, WeMedia Digital, has just published its second Viewability Report based on its portfolio. The base research has been conducted in the last quarter of 2017 by Moat and Active View. Viewability is defined according to the IAB standard: 50% of pixels in view during one second. More than 2.5 billion impressions were analysed with ± an equal breakdown of mobile and desktop. Respectively 87% and 96% of impressions have been considered measurable. Finally 45% of measurable mobile impressions and 64% of desktop measurable impressions were viewable by IAB standard. This is a global 55% if we aggregate both. WeMedia Digital finds an improvement compared to the previous measure (Q4 2016) that was made only on desktop: measurability ratio then was 94% (small improvement), and viewability was 5 percentage points lower (59%). They also point out that the most recent measurement exceeds the Moat benchmarks: in Q4 2017 the global viewability ratio on the Belgian market was 56%, significantly lower than the score measured for the We Media Digital sites for desktop. Unfortunately no benchmark is provided for mobile, but the score there is certainly not the very best. Publishers argue that the viewability measurement on mobile is at an early stage (hence no benchmarks available ?), and that "mobile" covers different technologies: websites for mobile, mobile apps and Web responsive sites.