Outbrain Unveil: A discourse on the future of advertising with product innovations
Outbrain- a leading discovery and native advertising feed for the open web, recently hosted its virtual event ‘Unveil’ for marketers across the globe. The event aimed at instigating conversations around the changes that the industry went through during the pandemic and the way forward in 2021. In accordance with the same, Outbrain also unveiled its latest product innovations and how they’d be a boon for marketers.
Outbrain’s Co-CEOs, Yaron Galai, and David Kostman, kickstarted the virtual event with a discussion around trends that were seen across platforms throughout 2020, the growing importance and rising opportunities in digital advertising today.
The company revealed its new ad experiences- Outbrain’s Smartads, from Click-to-Watch Video and Carousel to App Install, which would help distinguish Outbrain within the native advertising sector. The Smartads would enable marketers to meet their brand KPIs and would be of greater relevance to the consumers as well.
Lauren Pica, Head of Marketing, North America, Outbrain revealed about their new ad experiences, “Most consumers don’t like advertising not because they don’t like ads, but because of the way ads are delivered. Creative matters, how our ads appear matters, where they live makes all the difference. In 2020, we created a range of new experiences balancing the best of both worlds- engaging for the consumer, and ROI-friendly for the brand. “
Veronica Gonzalez, Chief of Staff & VP, Global Head of Business and Legal Affairs, Outbrain talked about another set of tools by Outbrain- the Conversion Bid Strategy (CBS). She discussed, “CBS is one of the most exciting things we did in 2020. We completely overhauled Outbrain’s optimization engine this year. It’s a powerful set of tools that optimize the campaign for you.”
Furthermore, Faye Liddle-Moor, Commercial Director- Northern Europe, Outbrain presented the new Native Awareness+ product suite which consists of three rich creative formats — Native Display, Native Social, and Native Video. This can be used by marketers to either leverage existing assets or create new experiences right from scratch.
“It’s a new way to build your brand and cut through the noise,” she said. “The Native+ ads appear in the middle of the article and are center stage. These ad placements are highly visible and exclusively showcase just one brand, meaning you are not sharing that space with any other advertiser,” Faye revealed further.
The 45-minute virtual discussion not only saw Outbrain’s leadership team discuss their latest products but also guest speakers such as Jim Cooper, Editor-in-Chief, and David Amrani, Chief Strategy Officer, Digiday who discussed the current scenario of the industry and what the future looks like.
David Amrani talked about how last year was unprecedented and pretty toxic as well but the future still looks bright for brands who are authentic with their consumers,
“In light of everything, there’s optimism for the year ahead. One bright spot is an emphasis on the consumer: their perceptions and values actually matter to brands, and it’s affecting how they’re marketing. It might take some experimentation, but brands that find a way to be authentic and trustworthy will probably see the most success,” he said.