Digital Innovation Digital Publishing
1 min read

It’s all about data – how magazine media wins the digital advertising challenge

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The battle for ad dollars among the oligopoly of Google/Facebook/Amazon and everyone else, is as much about the advantage in data and the cross-channel access to consumers the major platforms continue to exert over media. Core to these platforms’ strength is how they can leverage cross-device logins that allow for easy tracking, regardless of which screen a user is on.

The appeal to advertisers of having deterministic cross-channel access to consumers is clear, according to Kara Scagnelli, VP/group director, media at agency DigitasLBi, who says:, “Agencies and advertisers continue to push boundaries to deliver the most relevant experiences for consumers, and the inability to track and offer personalisation across all channels will become more of a barrier for those not willing to adapt.”

Time Inc. has been growing its publisher ID program all year, says Judith Hammerman, SVP of data commercialization and programmatic solutions. “We collect names and addresses and email, and it’s tied to a consumer ID,” she says.

Better yet, it doesn’t decay like a standard cookie but instead registers “every article they read, every newsletter and every subscription they are buying.” This allows the publisher to achieve some of the famed functionality of platforms in onboarding advertiser data.

“We have a unified ID and can partner with other data providers to enhance and ingest advertiser customer data and match that to a user.”

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