Hazel Broadley

An introduction to foreign languages at school - including the rigorous rules of German grammar - made Hazel consider English from a whole new perspective, and from there she went on to study German with Linguistics at Reading University and the University of Göttingen. Hazel's ten-year career in PR and Marketing culminated in her role as Account Director for a global technology PR firm. Since then, she has written and edited copy on a diverse range of topics, specialising in ad tech, mar tech, data ops, media and publishing.

Life beyond the cookie

The third-party cookie is crumbling: what’s next for publishers?

The third-party cookie has enabled marketers to serve targeted online ads for the last two decades, allowing websites to remain free, while ensuring content publishers are paid for their work.

But now, in response to privacy concerns and new regulations, leading web browsers are quickly deprecating these snippets of code. Apple has already blocked third-party cookies by default in Safari, while in January, Google announced a complete replacement in Chrome by 2022.

Even with the death of third-party cookies looming, the majority of digital advertising still relies on them. In response to this, we recently spoke to leading industry experts about the future of the ad tech ecosystem, and asked how smaller publishers in particular can adapt.

Here are the key takeaways we found:

Dare to diversify

There isn’t a predominant replacement for third-party cookies yet, so we don’t know where (or when) the industry will settle. In the meantime, there’ll be a fracturing of ad tech, and the key strategy for publishers during this transition phase will be to sell ad inventory in multiple different ways.

The most promising solutions avoid falling foul of both data laws and privacy-conscious tech developments:

Subscriptions. While this may be supplemental to ad revenue for smaller publishers, it’s crucial to renew focus on building a first-party subscription base. The advice from industry leaders is to offer a value exchange and make users feel like an exclusive member of a club.

Contextual intelligence. Contextual targeting serves ads based on the content of the webpage (e.g., training shoes on a fitness forum), whereas behavioural targeting uses individuals’ browsing activity. Although behavioural targeting has come to dominate the web, there’s little hard evidence that it actually improves revenues. Meanwhile, AI and machine learning have drastically improved contextual methodology, earning it the moniker ‘contextual intelligence’. Many industry leaders think it’s worth betting on this supercharged comeback.

Data clean rooms. These are a legally compliant and accurate way for publishers to continue using behavioural targeting. They can compare their first-party visitor data with those in ‘walled gardens’, e.g., Google and Facebook, to optimise ad matching. However, clean rooms can be expensive and therefore not necessarily viable for publishers with smaller datasets.

Edge Computing. Marking the age of “zero party” data, this data-conservative approach is becoming more popular as a way for publishers to sell remaining inventory. Data is collected and analysed directly on the user’s device, rather than on a server, which allows publishers to serve behavioural ads while completely respecting the user’s privacy.

Test and test again

With so many options available, validating their effectiveness will be just as important. Chris Hogg, EMEA Managing Director at data management platform, Lotame, stresses that now is the time to start testing.

“Test solutions and strategies while third-party cookies are still around to compare against. Ask for proofs of concept around Safari and Firefox inventory. The fact that we don’t have cookies in some of the other browsers presents a good opportunity for publishers to test out solutions and tactics today rather than later.”

Consequently, publishers will need to be far more involved when it comes to their audience data. Mattia Fosci, Founder and CEO of the edge computing solution, ID Ward, urges smaller content providers to approach data analysis with both partnerships and off-the-shelf technology.

“While it may not be viable to hire a full-time data analyst, don’t underestimate the importance of analysis on your bottom line. Publishers should have more control of their audience data, but they do not need to build their own in-house solutions… Instead, publishers should work with partners that protect and enhance their relationship with their own audiences.”

Turn obstacles into opportunity

While ad tech’s brave new world is an uncertain place, one thing’s for sure – it puts publishers in a much stronger position than before. As David Reischer, Head of Product at edge computing solution, Permutive, explains, “The death of the cookie is a huge opportunity for publishers to course correct on what has happened, with their data being aggregated at scale, repacked and sold as audiences or models.”

Now, publishers can use their first-party data to bring brands even closer to audiences. By being prepared, respecting privacy, and fostering user loyalty, the entire industry stands to benefit from the change.

Head over to What’s New in Publishing to download the full report.


Image courtesy of Pezibear

Deepfake technology

Is deepfake technology a threat to society?

You’d be excused for being sucked into the recent hype as one of the most famous actors in the world joined TikTok. The 53-year-old is seen practising his golf swings, falling over in a store, telling anecdotes and performing a magic trick with a coin. Already, the account has 11 million combined views and a following 383,000.

Only… it isn’t Tom Cruise. These videos are highly sleek deepfakes – the latest technology causing a storm across the world.

What are deepfakes and how do they work?

Deepfakes are highly realistic videos or audio recordings that look and sound like the real thing. They are constructed using a new application of machine learning called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in which two deep neural nets are trained in tandem based on the way our human brain works. Both are trained with same data, but each with different a different task.

Input real video and audio data of a specific person and the software recognises patterns in speech and movement. Introduce a new element to the software such as someone else’s face and voice, and a deepfake is born. As with most AI applications, the amount of data available determines the sophistication of the end product. This explains why Tom Cruise – one of the most photographed celebrities – has become a number one deepfake target.

Potential dangers

So far, deepfakes have mostly been created or used by amateurs on social media platforms. However, their future potential to be used in a malicious manner is of real concern. Experts suggest deepfakes are an imminent threat to the erosion of democracy. In an era of fake news and clickbait, widely-circulating deepfakes, such as those of highly authoritative figures making believable yet false claims, is detrimental to reputation and public trust. Deepfakes have the power to skew our perception of reality to such an extent that genuine reality is something we plausibly deny.

Deepfake software applications such as DeepfakesWeb and Faceswap are increasingly accessible to the public with no experience needed to get started. In the wrong hands, deepfakes can easily be used to enter fake events as evidence in court tribunals, as well as posing personal security risks to data currently protected by face and voice recognition. As deepfakes mimic and transcend security barriers, they leave the door open for increased malware and cyber attacks.

There is a strong likelihood that criminals will use deepfakes in the future, for instance in phishing attacks, or in extreme cases, to blackmail individuals for ransom. With the technology being used for such basic ruses as imitating the voice of a family member or friend asking for a money transfer, deepfake technology is undoubtedly establishing smoother routes of operation for cybercriminals – at an alarming rate.

Net positive for humanity?

Using state-of-the-art technology, deepfakes hold considerable potential for everyone, regardless of who we are or how we communicate. In a 2019 campaign for Malaria No More UK, deepfake technology simulated David Beckham delivering an anti-malaria message in nine different languages. Here, the positive global impact of deepfake technology was evident whilst enabling influencer marketing to reach the next level.

Moving away from media, deepfakes are also on track to deliver revolutionary benefits within the healthcare sector by aiding the development of new disease treatment. Researchers have already trained algorithms to create ‘fake’ MRI brain scans that are just as accurate in detecting brain tumours as algorithms trained using real medical images, but without using real patient data.

The potential benefits of deepfakes to society mark exciting tech prospects, equipping us with the ability to impact at scale and speed. However, as the tech becomes more widely available, so too does the opportunity for misuse. We need to be questioning its morality and safety within our society now, before it’s too late.

SEO traffic light

How to make your SEO plug-in happy (and work harder for you)

SEO traffic light

There’s a lot to think about when writing your business blog. An SEO plug-in – Yoast, Wix SEO Wiz, Rank Math etc – can help maximise your blog’s reach, but no software can do it alone. But there are a number of steps you can take to improve the quality and readability of your content – and engage your audience – without breaking the bank. 

 

Two billion websites are competing for attention

 

The Google search engine is the go-to platform for 92.71% of all online searches, and captures information from an estimated 2 billion websites. That’s a whole load of competition. But this is where clever use of your SEO plug-in, and a targeted approach to writing copy, will help focus your online efforts – rather than wasting time trying to turn those red crosses – the problems your plug-in flags up – into green checkmarks. 


Some of the common issues an SEO plug-in might flag up include:

 

· Using the passive voice

· Long sentences

· Long paragraphs

· Lack of subheadings

· Readability

· Strength of your focus keywords or phrases

· Broken links

· Website load times

 

Writing more effective copy and avoiding some of those red flags really is fairly simple. Here are just a few tips to keep your plug-in happy and make sure your blog works harder for you.

 

The key to better copy

 

One of the first things to eliminate is the passive voice where possible. If you’re not sure if a sentence uses the passive voice and you want to avoid your plug-in telling you off, add the phrase ‘by zombies’ to the end of your sentence. If it still makes grammatical sense, you’ve used the passive voice. Example: ‘A question was asked’…’by zombies’. That’s the time to turn your sentence into the active voice, for instance: ‘He asked a question’. (Or, if you’re writing a zombie apocalypse novel, ‘The zombie asked a question’.)

 

Something else to think about is ‘the rule of three’ that novelists, graphic designers and professional communicators often use. The premise is that the human brain most easily grasps ideas in threes: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’; ‘Ready, Steady, Go’; Three Little Pigs. Short, effective, memorable. Structuring your blog post this way will focus your writing. Keep it simple, sharp and to the point.

 

Consider the following from George Orwell: “Never use a long word where a short one will do”. Clean, clear sentences help your reader find the information they need and pinpoint how you can offer a solution to their problem.

 

Holding your audience’s attention

 

Sentence length is another red flag for a plug-in. The best writing uses a varied sentence length: too many long sentences in a row can be tiring for the reader. Too many short sentences can make your text feel disjointed. The same is true for paragraph length – you’re more likely to lose your audience if they can’t find the main idea quickly. You only have a short time to capture their attention – around eight seconds – before they move on. A little variety enhances your post and keeps your reader on the page.

 

Don’t forget subheadings…

 

Subheadings allow your audience to zero in on the ideas and solutions they’re looking for and will help you clarify the message you want to convey. Strategic subheadings capture attention and also make it more likely your reader will stick around to read your post for longer than those precious eight seconds.

 

…Or keywords

 

A plug-in will allow you to test out the keyword you want to use for your post, help you find related keywords and see how many searches a particular word or phrase garners on Google. Once established, it’s important to use these keywords throughout the post. Having the freedom to quickly play around with this saves you valuable time while boosting your chances of increasing your post’s ranking.

 

It’s the little things

 

These are just a few simple tips to optimise your content and boost your online presence. Maximising how you use those helpful plug-ins makes a big difference in your search rankings. If you’re still feeling unsure about how you can enhance your blog’s reach, get an expert to to check your draft before you upload, and before your plug-in bears its red flag.

 

Image courtesy of Alexas_Photos from Pixabay