eMarketer’s chief content officer and co-founder, Geoff Ramsey, discuss one of the most serious challenges the digital industry has ever faced: consumers’ disintegrating trust in brands, media companies and social platforms.

1. Geoffrey Ramsey
Chief Content Officer,
Co-Founder
Thank you
@geofframseygeoff@emarketer.com

2. Trust at the Crossroads:
@geofframsey
I. Exploring the Depth and Breadth of
the Problem
II. Identifying Solutions for Marketers

4. Trust in media over the past two decades
% of Americans Saying They Had a
“Great Deal” or “Fair Amount” of Trust
in Mass Media
53%
1997
32%
2016
Nov,
2017
Trust in Marketing &
Advertising as an
Industry???
3%

5. Good news: of all the major institutions,
media is only the 2nd most broken!
20%
Media
21%
Media
Which institution is
the most broken?

6. Since last year, trust in “Media” is down sharply
for “platforms,” but not for “journalism”
Social media
platforms
and search
engines

7. However, 77% of Americans believe
that mainstream media report
Yes, occasionally 46%
Source: Monmouth University, March, 2018
31%Yes, regularly
Yes (regularly/
occasionally) 77%
No 21%
Don’t know 3%
Up 13 percentage
points vs. 2017

8. spreads faster, farther and deeper than
accurate journalism
It took true news stories about 6X as long as false
ones to reach 1,500 people
True news stories were rarely retweeted by more than
1,000 people, but the top 1% of false stories were
routinely shared by 1,000 to 100,000 people
Study of Twitter users (based on 126K
stories tweeted by 3M people since 2006)
False claims were 70% more likely than the truth to
be shared on Twitter

9. Do you get your news on social media???
▪ 67% of Americans get their news from social media
▪ 78% among 18-49 year olds

10. % of Internet Users Who Access News
from Each Source on a Daily Basis
Source: Sharethrough, Oct, 2017
#10
#4
#11
#15
#16
46%
24%
11%
6%
43%
9%
4%
Are you ready for some irony?

11. “I Generally Trust the Information
I Get Online from This Company”
Source: Internet Lab, Digital Satisfaction Index, Oct, 2017
33%
40%
44%
71%
49%
< 50% Among Facebook users
for whom FB is a source
of their news:
––Ipsos and Buzzfeed, April, 2017
54% of the news was
viewed as untrustworthy

12. The trust issues with social platforms also
affect how they view the ads and branded
content they see there
63% of US consumers say
they respond more
positively to the same ads
when they find them in more
established, trusted media
environments.
––CMO Council and Dow Jones survey
among 300 US marketers, 2017
While 69% of internet
users trust advertisers
on [established]
publisher sites and apps,
only 54% do so on
social media
––Digital Content Next (n = 1,000), Dec, 2017
For consumers, context matters.

13. Trust issues also extend to privacy
and use of personal information…
“% of Facebook users who are “Very Concerned”
about their data privacy being invaded”
30%
2011
43%
April, 2018
Source: Gallup poll, 2011 and 2018

14. Apparently
consumers
trust Facebook
the least when
it comes to
protecting their
personal
information
56%
––Mark Zuckerberg
“We have a
responsibility to
protect your data,
and if we can’t,
we don’t deserve
to serve you.”

15. However, consumers don’t always act
according to their stated concerns
44%
“Very
Concerned”
How Concerned Are You About
Facebook’s Use of Your Data?
Source: Raymond James, 2018 (n = 391)
40%
“Somewhat
Concerned”
=
84%
“Concerned”
% Who Plan To Stop
Using Facebook?
8%
% “Very Concerned”
Gallup, April, 2018 44%
The Economist, 2018 35%
Janrain, April, 2018 51%

16. Marketers and
other digital
decision-makers
have ranked
media outlets in
terms of having
brand-safe
environments
Tier I
Tier II 34%

17. % of Brand Marketers and Agency Executives Who
Believe Platform Content Offers a “Safe Environment”
Source: Jack Myers and MediaVillage study;
(n = 1,200 US brand and agency executives), 2018
60%
51%
21%
33%
12 Top Broadcast
& Cable Networks

18. II. The Solutions for Resurrecting Trust
Let’s focus on five things MARKETERS
can do to help solve the crisis in trust…

19. Let’s focus on five things MARKETERS
can do to help solve the crisis in trust…
#1. Don’t wait for everyone else to
solve the problem.
68%
of US internet
users would
support GDPR-like
regulation
––Janrain, April, 2018

20. #2. Take a flight to safety
“[The ad tech supply
chain is] murky at best,
and fraudulent at worst.”
––Marc Pritchard, CMO, P&G
83% of display advertising is
bought programmatically

21. #2. Take a flight to safety
“[The ad tech supply
chain is] murky at best,
and fraudulent at worst.”
––Marc Pritchard, CMO, P&G
Marketers/Media Buyers Who Have Concerns
about Media Buying Related To Brand Safety
ADI Summit* (Mar, 2017) 50% #1
Advertiser Perceptions* (Oct, 2017) 51% #3
CMO Council** (2017) 72% #1
*United States; **Worldwide
ANA* (Dec, 2017) 78% N/A
MediaVillage* (May, 2017) 70% #1
% Rank
83% of display advertising is
bought programmatically

22. 22
Brands prefer to be in a TRUSTED environment
Watch for more light and transparency
to be shed on programmatic buying
(think PREMIUM placements)

23. 23
Brands prefer to be in a TRUSTED environment
Watch for more light and transparency
to be shed on programmatic buying
(think PREMIUM placements)
Programmatic buying is shifting
rapidly towards Direct (vs. RTB), as
well as towards Private Exchanges
According to Advertiser Perceptions, 56% of digital
advertisers have taken deliberate steps to improve
the brand safety of their media buys (including
Whitelisting of approved sites)

24. More evidence that marketers are moving
in the right direction…
In a recent survey of CMOs, 23% said they
had taken ad buying in-house, while another
34% said they were considering doing so.
In an even more recent (2018) survey, 32%
of CMOs worldwide said they had taken
programmatic buying in-house
Only 18% of brands have taken
programmatic buying fully in-house.
May, 2018
November, 2017
January, 2018

25. Have some marketers just been giving
sssssssssss to brand safety concerns?
While brand safety ranked #1 in importance by
brand and agency media decision-makers
(70% said it was “very relevant”)
Based on a linear regression analysis,
a brand-safe environment was only 4%
likely to correlate with a marketer’s intention
to spend on any given publisher.
––MediaVillage survey (n = 775 brand
and agency executives), May, 2017

26. Brands Worldwide Asked If They Will
Reduce Digital Ad Spend Unless Issues of
Brand Safety, Fraud, etc Are Resolved
Source: WARC survey (n = 600 marketing and advertising professionals), Oct, 2017
49%“Disagree” (won’t reduce)
32%“Agree” (will reduce)
More ???

27. More ???“We’ve seen a ton of talk around
advertisers backing away from
areas deemed unsafe for brands,
but not many have backed out.”
––Jacob Davis, iCrossing

28. Ultimate impact on
• Slowing growth in ad spending by marketers (but not dramatic)
• Slight shrinkage in traffic and time spent
• However, all of these things were already happening—before the
Cambridge Analytica scandal broke
• Likelihood of continued minor defections, a la #DeleteFacebook,
especially among younger folks
• Increasing consumer concerns about privacy and personal data
(but few will bother changing privacy settings)

29. Marketers continue to invest big bucks in the
Duopoly
Source: eMarketer (US figures), 2018
= 57%
= 20%
––Debra Aho Williamson
“It’s just too big and too
important to their marketing
plans to ignore.”

30. = 57%
––New York Times, April 26, 2018
“All the data privacy issues, the
congressional hearings, none
of that will get as much
scrutiny from investors as the
bottom line.”

31. Marketers still
think the big
social platforms
provide the
highest ROI
(both FB and Google
have excellent
targeting
capabilities)

32. % of Brand Marketers and Agency Executives Who
Believe Companies Are “Very Valuable” for Reach
Source: Jack Myers and MediaVillage study; (n = 1,200 US brand and agency executives), 2018
80%
And who are considered the kings of reach
and measurement?
Top Four
Broadcast Networks
61%

33. % of Brand Marketers and Agency Executives Who
Believe Companies Are “Very Valuable” for Reach
Source: Jack Myers and MediaVillage study; (n = 1,200 US brand and agency executives), 2018
80%
And who are considered the kings of reach
and measurement?
Top Four
Broadcast Networks
61%
~50% rated their data and
analytics capabilities as
“very valuable”
~25% rated as
“very valuable”

34. The Marketer’s Faustian Bargain
QUALITY
High
Low
HighSCALELow
High quality =
higher costs,
lower scale.
Is cheap
audience reach
a poisoned
chalice?
––Geoff Ramsey
“As much as
possible, choose
the high road.”

35. #3. Focus more on 1st-party data,
and less on 3rd-party data (Go DIRECT!)

36. Consumers appear to prefer sharing their
personal data with brands directly…
80%

37. is certainly addictive… but
it’s like a crutch and
marketers are looking to
wean themselves from it
“Since 3rd party data
providers don’t have direct
relationships with users,
they make inferences to
build data sets.”
Ross Benes, eMarketer

38. “Since 3rd party data
providers don’t have direct
relationships with users,
they make inferences to
build data sets.”
Ross Benes, eMarketer
“Several [marketers] are building their own
customer data lists out of concern they
were too reliant on Facebook [and others]
for such information.”
April 18, 2018
80% of advertisers
claim it’s unreliable
––Digiday survey, 2018

39. “More and more [marketers] are
selling directly. Once you stort selling
directly, you begin to understand what
the real power of data is. It’s all about
the relationship.”
––Rishad Tobaccowala, Feb, 2018––Rishad Tobaccowala, Feb, 2018

40. “More and more [marketers] are
selling directly. Once you stort selling
directly, you begin to understand what
the real power of data is. It’s all about
the relationship.”
––Rishad Tobaccowala, Feb, 2018
“Major CPG companies
already have goals of having
25% of their sales direct
[in the next few years].”
––Rishad Tobaccowala, Feb, 2018

41. #4. Balance the tension between
providing a “personalized”
experience and stepping into the
area of “creepiness”

42. 80% of brands worldwide agree that
personalization is a “High” to “#1 Priority”
80%
While 90%
of senior
marketers
worldwide are
using
personalization,
only 6% rate
their strategy as
“advanced”
––Monetate, Feb, 2017

43. Consumers view personalization as a
double-edged sword
63%
said they would like to see
“less targeted advertising”
in the future (only 9% wanted
to see more)
––Reuters/Ipsos, March, 2018
>50%
Of 18 - 49-year old
internet users prefer to
see personalized ads
––ADI Summit Survey and Adobe, 2017
63%
agree that personally
relevant content
improves how they feel
about the brand
associated with it
––Reuters, (n = 752), March, 2018

44. Consumers view personalization as a
double-edged sword
63%
said they would like to see
“less targeted advertising”
in the future (only 9% wanted
to see more)
––Reuters/Ipsos, March, 2018
58%find it “creepy that
tracking technologies
collect and store data on
my every move”
––RSA and YouGov (in US and W. Euro), Jan, 2018

45. Be transparent about what you’re doing.
Always offer value in exchange for consumer
information or data.
Tailor your personalization efforts based on the
tolerance level of each customer segment.
Avoid putting your customers through
retargeting hell.
The balancing act for
personalization:

46. Be transparent about what you’re doing.
Always offer value in exchange for consumer
information or data.
Tailor your personalization efforts based on the
tolerance level of each customer segment.
Avoid putting your customers through
retargeting hell.
The balancing act for
personalization:

47. #5. Get more transparent with
influencer marketing.
“Influencer marketing has
gotten big enough that
disclosing ties between
brands and influencers is a
necessity, not an option.”
––Debra Aho Williamson

48. Ultimately, marketers have to bear the
responsibility…

49. No excuses.

50. No excuses.

51. No excuses.
––Geoff Ramsey
“And now for the last
slide… trust me.”

52. 45 slides
143 data
sources = 0.0034%
of our information

53. Geoffrey Ramsey
Chief Content Officer,
Co-Founder
Thank you
@geofframseygeoff@emarketer.com

54. Geoffrey Ramsey
Chief Content Officer,
Co-Founder
Thank you
@geofframseygeoff@emarketer.com