Coming up with a media strategy requires research and an understanding of the ecosystem. Whether you are marketing an app, a website, or consumer goods, a good media mix needs to be diverse enough, allowing you as a marketer to reach your audience and attract new audiences that may be interested in your product.

These are the best mediums you should consider adding to your media mix in 2021 to give marketers an incremental sales lift. Incrementality testing is key for cross channel marketing

New Mediums

Connected TV (CTV)

Over 80% of internet traffic is video, and streaming content is at #1 of this list. Content providers make enormous investments bringing content or producing content to be distributed in digital channels.

The COVID-19 pandemic created precedent where blockbuster films were distributed only via digital 

The way to access CTV inventories is becoming standardized with leading SSPs and DSPs offering access to some of the largest CTV publishers, either via PMPs or through the open auction.

Podcasts

Apparently it wasn’t video that killed the radio store - it was podcasts. Podcasts growth rate is astonishing, with over 1.8M podcasts and over 45 million episodes available - podcasts are becoming a commodity, fast. 

What is great about podcasts is that they are available across several platforms, and as they attract a captive dedicated audience - Advertising on podcasts became a highly effective method.

While most Podcast advertising space is sold as sponsorship opportunities, programmatic audio ads have become standardized and are growing in inventory and opportunities for marketers.
As Podcasts (currently) are popular mostly with millennials and Gen Z, tech savvy people - many Advertisers are investing in this channel.

DOOH

Out of home media used to involve a local operation of print shops and installation people going around a city placing billboards. With the advances in LED technology and the availability of mobile internet - almost every location became an opportunity for monetization - from taxi cabs, to bathrooms.

We can already see DSPs and dedicated ad networks to digital out of home.

With Facetime and Apple Search Ads, maybe the future of targeting as portrayed in Minority Report is more real than we thought it could be.

 Search & Social:

Search Platforms

Search is the ultimate advertising media for some companies - especially those with a contextual nature. By advertising on Google, Amazon and other search engines results page - Advertisers are able to reach a user who expresses their intent.

In Game Programmatic Advertising

2020 has been a huge year for gaming. Beyond the great game releases, the release of the PS5 and the XBOX X - gaming has become a mainstream medium, both as interactive media, but also as consumable content with the likes of Twitch and co.

In Game Advertising used to be a static ad within the game, typically only showing lifestyle brand ads, limited to sponsorship contracts , but now , with EVERY device being connected to the internet - in game advertising has become a real time, programmatically traded medium, available across every channel.

Platforms like Anzu.io go the extra mile and can even show gaming content consumers (i.e. “fans”) relevant ads based on their location and other targeting options. 

Searching for less contextual products - games, utilities, lifestyle services, is a highly competitive segment, where platforms such as Apple Search Ads and the Google Play Store search have become highly competitive, yet, very effective channels for distribution.

Social Media

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest are social media platforms with a high network effect. Users share a lot of personal data and interact with their friends, colleagues and public figures they follow, offering great targeting opportunities for marketers. 

The audience targeting on Facebook was actually so good, that Facebook had to omit certain capabilities due to criticism and law amendments.  

Facebook is the largest mobile advertising platform today, with a whopping market share of +30% of global mobile advertising budgets.

Influencers

During 2018 a game called Among Us was launched, receiving almost no attention nor fanfare, peaking at 1,800 players online. It wasn’t until 2020 when the twitch streamer Sodapoppin started playing this game online, leading to a snowball effect helping the game popularity increase and reach over 200,000,000 downloads. All of this growth was organic.

Influencer marketing is a difficult media to “succeed” with - as the best influencers are those who actually develop a passion towards a product, and paid content may sometimes create the opposite effect with the influencer audience for being a “sell out”.

The story of “Among Us” is like winning a cosmic lottery - it shows that Influencers can drive substantial scale by promoting products. 

There are millions of influencers - from “Arts & Crafts by Three Sisters” to “The Lockpicking Lawyer” , many of which monetize their videos through MCNs (Multi-Channel-Networks - the equivalent of a “label” in today’s terms) , and some even offer accessible programmatically.

Traditional Media Channels:

Demand Side Platforms (DSPs)

Programmatic DSPs offer access to billions of ad impressions daily, across thousands of publishers. Programmatic Advertising is truly the closest equivalent to financial trading, giving the marketer control over every aspect of the spend. 

Some programmatic companies like: Liftoff, Adikteev, Jampp, Smadex, offer a managed solution - guaranteeing conversions or even billing only for attributed conversions, while some offer a seat and access to the software like Kayzen, allowing the Advertiser to take advantage of the learnings and bring the skills in-house.

Ad Networks

Aggregating demand and supply, some ad networks continue producing the best results for both publishers and Advertisers, especially those who focus on a big enough niche such as unique creative formats, high quality of publishers and a dedicated vetting process to ensure a premium environment for both parties. 

Companies like like IronSource, Vungle, and UnityAds are great example of such ad networks which continue showing good results for gaming companies. 

Other Mediums:

Offer Walls

Incentivized or “opt in” inventory continues being relevant for companies as a great channel. It provides a way to acquire users at a lower cost given the incentive, where with the right remarketing strategy - some advertisers find that acquiring users through offer walls provides an opportunity matched only by the most expensive media channels. 

Rewarded Video Platforms like Fyber, and TapJoy, still offer the best offer wall inventory globally.

Content Recommendation / Native Ads

Up to a decade ago, they were called “Flogs” (Fake Blogs), to be renamed as “click bait” - mock them or love them - content marketing ads are a huge business and a huge inventory opportunity.  Taboola and Outbrain are the undisputed leaders in this space.

Creating an appealing content ad that attracts audiences to click through and convert requires more marcom effort than other mediums - but Advertisers who found a way to successfully acquiring users through these channels enjoy high incrementality and low cannibalization of audiences. 

Reddit

The “1st page of the internet” had to get its own section in this article. Reddit may not have the same reach as Facebook, Google, Twitter or other social platforms, but Reddit has an audience that has a low overlap with other platforms - making advertising on Reddit reach unique users that are harder to reach otherwise.

The average reddit user is more informed, sophisticated, and is more likely to become a brand champion if they like something - making Reddit, the most “outsider” community - the most valuable community to get into.

INCRMNTAL is an incrementality measurement platform. The platform is not a media mix trading platform. The incrementality platform provides insights about your media value across any platform or channel, including CTV, DOOH, Influencers, Social, and Traditional Media.

If you want to learn more, visit INCRMNTAL or book a demo today!