Specialist
Former director at Glow Social & Digital Agency
Agenda
- Social media advertising overview and key developments – importance of IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and global economic uncertainties
- Demand and pricing dynamics for Q1 2022 and into Q2 2022, highlighting expected CPM and CPV increases
- Evolving positioning and performance across Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and its subsidiary YouTube, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) and its Facebook and Instagram businesses, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), Snapchat (NYSE: SNAP) and Pinterest (NYSE: PINS), among others
- Outlook for H2 2022 and beyond
Questions
1.
Could you outline the current operating environment for digital and social media businesses, including 2-3 key drivers of demand and performance?
2.
You mentioned many media buyers don’t necessarily know what to do or how to proceed, given legal and regulatory-driven developments such as IDFA [Identifier for Advertisers], GDPR and what Google is doing. How might that impact or have impacted the behaviour of ad buyers and advertisers?
3.
Who do you think is best-positioned vs disadvantaged around first-party data for 2022? People seem to be starting to wake up to the importance of first-party data and you mentioned some of the properties that you think are better positioned around obtaining or having that.
4.
Could quantify industry-wide expected increases in CPM and CPV? What have we seen already and what do you expect in 2022? What might have been IDFA’s impact on pricing over Q4 2021 to Q1 2022 and what you would expect for the rest of 2022?
5.
How do you think the global economic backdrop – including the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and prices rising for seemingly everything – has been influencing digital and social media businesses and demand for their offerings?
6.
Can you quantify the impact that financial obligations related to brand-safety solutions have on overall spend or CPMs?
7.
What has been the impact of the macroeconomic fiscal implications of higher prices and related economic uncertainties? In its Q4 2021 results, Meta Platforms highlighted a number of challenges, leading with global economic uncertainty negatively impacting especially smaller advertisers and their spend. There seems to be two different ways to look at it – smaller or maybe even bigger advertisers and their spend but also being reflective of the attitudes and consumption of the general public and how that plays into how advertisers are operating now.
8.
IDFA was implemented essentially in summer 2021 and it seems companies started to communicate about the impacts in around Q3 2021. We obviously saw some more in Q4, but maybe less than expected. Do you think this will have a sustained impact for the next couple of quarters until the anniversary of its launch? Could the impact on companies be permanent? How do you think about the timing and magnitude of the impacts?
9.
We’ve discussed the negative impacts on advertising spend and advertisers, but I would imagine one positive has to be coming out of coronavirus. It seems like that is moving in the right direction, despite some indications of case number increases in the US and elsewhere. To what extent do you think that helps digital and social media companies countervail the negatives that we’ve discussed?
10.
You suggested that people will have a harder time understanding how and where they’re targeting their advertising. To what extent do you think that will also increase demand for analytics and data solutions to support and help navigate where the real opportunity and value might be? Do you see that connection as well?
11.
You seem particularly negative to neutral at best on Meta, Facebook and Instagram, even though you touched upon the possibility of more WhatsApp monetisation. Meta has been talking for a while about its difficulties around monetising features such as Stories and Reels. Do you think that’s something it will be able to figure out? Is that a structural problem? How should we be thinking about that challenge, given it makes up increasing amounts of the company’s content?
12.
What do you think about Twitter and how the company is positioned now vs what the opportunities might be? You seem to have some mixed views on the platform, in part because of the reputational damage from events around the company over the past 1-2 years. I think people also look at the its investments to its advertising tech stack that took years to complete. Maybe it was a little or a lot behind others but that actually means that it’s not as negatively impacted as much by IDFA.
13.
What area or property type do you think would make the most sense for Twitter if it were to pursue a deal? The company has tried in a couple of different ways to make acquisitions or to innovate and those haven’t worked as some would have liked.
14.
What are your thoughts on Pinterest’s positioning and expectations for its performance? During the pandemic it seemed to benefit as much as anyone from the user shift and the types of content that the platform is best known for. It seems to have pivoted to e-commerce and is trying to get more into video.
15.
What did you make of the reporting late last year about PayPal potentially looking to acquire Pinterest? The market capitalisation is down over 60% over the past year or so. Do you consider Pinterest as a potential acquisition target?
16.
Which of the properties we’ve discussed do you consider the best- vs worst-positioned from an operating and growth perspective?
17.
Do you have any predictions for 2022 or beyond?
