Category: Resources

Whether starting or expanding your in-house agency, rest assured, you are not alone. In fact, in the past decade, going in-house has become the status quo. According to a recent survey, the percentage of Association of National Advertisers members who reported having some form of in-house agency has doubled from roughly 40% in 2008 to almost 80% in 2018.

There are myriad motivations to go in-house. Maybe you felt that those within your business understand your brand better and have more vested interest in its success. Maybe outsourcing everything to your external agency partner was proving too costly. Or maybe you grew tired of the lack of transparency from your vendors and agency partners.

Regardless of the reason you’ve gone in-house, you’re now facing a gargantuan task for which there is no clear playbook. Agencies aren’t going to just tell you how the sausage is made. And what’s more, their ‘how’ is a process that might not be right for the unique needs of your brand.

But you know this for certain: you want to focus your spending on locking down the very best creative you can. That’s essential — because there is great control gained by going in-house. But the ability to steer the way your brand tells its stories is meaningless if the stories aren’t compelling. If they aren’t told in innovative and engaging ways.

ORGANIZATION

So, you’ve taken control of your own destiny. And you’ve managed to hire some very talented creatives who are getting your messaging on the right track. The next hurdle to overcome is the organizational component of running your in-house agency.

The task of building a cohesive internal organization structure can prove tricky. First, there’s asset management. You’re facing a seemingly endless stream of assets in various versions, files, and formats. Many which were generated off-site and live in various different places at once.

These assets require an organizational system. A storage framework that ensures you know where everything is – and that you can easily access it. And the sooner you create a viable solution the better. Because sloppy protocol will quickly spiral out of control and come back to bite you. There’s nothing more frustrating than facing a deadline and being unable to find what you’re looking for.

COMMUNICATION

Communication is another important but troublesome component of running an effective in-house agency. Your internal creative team is likely stretched across various departments. In many cases, these departments report to different managers. This makes sharing assets and information across departments another precarious task.

Developing communication best practices is key to avoiding mistakes and to generating the best work possible. But these practices won’t just fall into place on their own. You need to have both a solid plan and a clear path to make the plan a reality.

And that’s not to mention external communication. No doubt, you will still have certain services that require agency partnerships. And it’s on you and your team to act as the ‘Brand Stewards,’ communicating and enforcing brand strategy and standards. So your in-house departments need to not only talk clearly and efficiently with one another but also with your agency partners and other external partners, too.

And not just any hire can carry out this communication. You’ll need experienced team members who are intimately familiar with Business Affairs and Traffic. These are critical roles but are also costly hires.

Regardless of the reason you’ve gone in-house, you’re now facing a gargantuan task for which there is no clear playbook. We can help.

ANALYSIS

A final task that is supremely important but often underserved is analyzing your non-media marketing spend. Proper analysis is essential to ensuring that your in-house agency is in fact operating in a way that’s more cost efficient than going out-of-house. You must have a clear overview of your distribution versus creative spends as well as the ratio of internal versus vendor costs.

If all this sounds overwhelming, we get it! At Tylie, we know how hard it is to navigate the complex world of ad generation and distribution. And how important it is for your team to be able to show that no matter what gets thrown your way, you can handle it.

Team Tylie has decades of experience with non-media Marketing Spends, inter-departmental communication, Traffic, and Business Affairs. And we’re here to lend an extra hand when your workload becomes overwhelming.

TYLIE COMMUNICATION CORE MANAGEMENT SERVICE

Our history and experience have put us in the unique position of being in ‘the eye of the storm’ in terms of logistics. With our Communication Core Management Service, Team Tylie will partner with your in-house agency manage all Advertiser partners, your content, data, and overall needs.

Tylie will help you establish your communication channels, organize your asset management, and consult you as you analyze your spend. So you can rest assured that you know what’s going on both inside and outside of your in-house agency at all times.

GIVE US THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW AND PROVE

Contact us now at email@tylie.com or (818) 955 7600 to learn more about our Communication Core Management Service. We’re confident we can save you time and money. It’s what we’ve been doing for 50 years – helping our clients do what they do, better.

We get it. When you’re in the market for an advertising distribution partner, the decision often boils down to one dirty little four-letter word: rate.

Sure, on the surface, shopping for the best rate might seem perfectly logical. After all, who doesn’t love a good deal? But at Tylie, we’ve been in the game long enough to know that the true cost of delivery is much more nuanced than a single number.

It’s like those bargain-brand airlines who offer too-good-to-be-true ticket prices. You think you’ve scored a great deal only to find that there’s an additional charge for every little thing. Want to bring a carry-on bag? That’s extra. Want a bag of peanuts? That’s extra, too. Want to reach a customer service agent? Forget it.

You get what you pay for. And when you’re paying next to nothing, that’s what you can expect in return.

That’s why it’s wise to ask yourself: what am I getting for that low rate? And more importantly, what am I not getting? Because what’s included in the rate is just as important as what the rate is.

There are two common categories that these kind of low rate maneuvers fall into: the ‘bait-and-switch’ and the ‘up-charge.’

THE BAIT-AND-SWITCH

In many cases, rate-slashing is a bait-and-switch tactic. Companies simply want to pull you into their ecosystem, knowing that once you’re there, it’s more trouble than it’s worth to extract yourself. So,they get you up to speed on their workflow and get your assets locked into their servers.

But then, once you’ve signed a contract and integrated with their platform or network, the attentive and responsive attitude and communication that characterized their sales pitch evaporates. The competition for who can offer the lowest rates has turned into a race to the bottom.

You find yourself on your own with a login to their DIY platform but with no guidance or support. You’re essentially left to your own devices to hit deadlines and dial in your traffic instructions. And you’re locked into a contract that makes it nearly impossible to escape their mediocre service.

That’s why it’s wise to ask yourself: what am I getting for that low rate? And more importantly, what am I not getting? Because what’s included in the rate is just as important as what the rate is.

THE UP-CHARGE

The second and most blatant tactic is the dreaded up-charge. Much like the bargain airline example, up-chargers will draw you in with a super low rate only to tack on additional charges — either services that were hidden in the fine print of your contract or intentional inefficiencies. Your flat delivery rate balloons when you get an invoice that is nickel-and-diming you for services you didn’t realize weren’t part of your delivery rate.

What’s worse, Up-chargers will figure out ways to drum up repeat charges. For example, by sending multiple deliveries to the same stations simply to increase the number of times they can charge you that low low delivery rate. And it really adds up!

On the other end of the spectrum is Team Tylie. Our Client Experience Experts act as an extension of your team. That’s because we put ourselves in your shoes. We’re focused on saving you money, routinely analyzing your traffic destinations, hubbing them whenever possible to remove redundant or inefficient deliveries.

At Tylie Ad Solutions, we pride ourselves in delivering on a promise: The client comes first. After nearly a half century in ad delivery, we have developed a system we call Tylie True Intelligence. A combination of the latest tech and the sharpest minds; that’s the best value in the industry.

GIVE US THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW AND PROVE

Contact us now at email@tylie.com or (818) 955 7600 for a free trial audit of your workflow or learn more about the Tylie Difference and read Client Stories. We’re confident we can save you time and money. It’s what we’ve been doing for 50 years – helping our clients do what they do, better.

A Simple Question

“What was that ad for?” A simple question that led to a shift in the advertising landscape. The question was posed by Tylie Ad Solutions President Sheri Lawrence’s husband, Adam, while they sat in their living room eating dinner and watching TV. It wasn’t that Adam hadn’t been paying attention to the spot or that the ad didn’t include the brand’s logo. Adam couldn’t tell what the commercial was advertising because he’s visually impaired.

This question became a familiar refrain as night after night, Adam couldn’t tell what the commercials he was hearing were advertising. His question echoed in Sheri’s head. Over the following weeks, she observed the fact that as commercials have become increasingly complex and narratively-driven, those without the ability to see the screen clearly are less likely to understand their stories and connect with the spots.

Descriptive Video Service (DVS) was developed in the mid-eighties, a visually impaired answer to Closed Captioning. Narration describes the on-screen action whenever there isn’t dialogue or voice-over, enabling the visually impaired audience to ‘see’ the story in their mind’s eye. While some Federal mandates for programming exist, Team Tylie was surprised to learn that not only wasn’t DVS in advertising mandated, it didn’t exist at all.

Tylie Ad Solutions is proud to be the industry’s leading provider of DVS with our signature Quality Assured Descriptive Video Service. Tylie was the very first to bring DVS advertising to market and has since become the exclusive DVS providers for Procter & Gamble, Wells Fargo, and Subaru, just to name a few.

A Growing Market Share

Because DVS isn’t yet commonplace in advertising, it represents an enormous opportunity. Inclusive practices like adopting DVS in your advertisements don’t just communicate your brand’s values, they add value, too. There are more than 30 million visually impaired adult Americans, which translates to 12.5% of U.S. consumers.

That means spots without DVS are missing out on a huge, untapped market that’s already baked into your media spend. And with a significant Baby Boomer population reaching their golden years, these figures are constantly on the rise.

In addition to Baby Boomers, returning U.S. Armed Forces Veterans are the fastest growing segment of visually impaired Americans. Including DVS not only enables you to reach that Veteran demographic but it also is a way to show your brand’s support for the troops and include and normalize the experiences of those returning home without their full vision.

And lest you assume that the V.I. community doesn’t watch TV, a study conducted by Comcast-NBCUniversal and the American Foundation for the Blind showed that the visually impaired watch just as much TV as the sighted. What’s more, they are primary influencers in terms of household purchases. So you can rest assured that your investment in DVS will make a very real impact without the burden of any additional media spend.

We envision a future in which every program and every commercial have DVS. In which none are excluded from the story told by the brilliant creative that our partners work so tirelessly to craft. This is a future that will benefit brands and consumers alike.

DVS is Not Only for the Visually Impaired

In the era of distraction, all media is engaged in a cutthroat battle. What was once a quest for ratings now has a broader goal – attention. With multi-screen experiences becoming more commonplace and the great attention sucker – that little rectangle in your purse or pocket – ever at hand, viewers very rarely assign their full focus to any one thing.

But by adding an auditory component to your visual advertising, you can actively increase messaging saturation and reach among those who aren’t even necessarily in the room. Whether it’s a husband cooking dinner in the kitchen or a wife reading an article on her tablet, the timeless sound of a story being told never fails to grasp the listener’s attention and imagination.

Looking and Listening Toward the Future

Tylie was proud to be the first to offer Quality Assured Descriptive Video Service. And though we have brought DVS to Prime Time working with some of the biggest brands in the world, we see this as just the tip of the iceberg. We envision a future in which every program and every commercial have DVS. In which none are excluded from the brilliant creative that our partners work so tirelessly to craft. This is a future that will benefit brands and consumers alike.

By acting now, brands will maximize the benefits of early adoption. Not only will adding DVS to your spots do good for the visually impaired community, but it will also create meaningful positive brand associations. Furthermore, DVS will differentiate your brand as leading the march toward access for all instead of jumping on the bandwagon once it’s a crowded ride.

Interested in learning more about DVS?

Visit our DVS Service page or email us at dvs@tylie.com to reach a member of the Client Experience team and find out about getting a free Custom Demo.

One of the biggest challenges for Brands and Agencies alike is maintaining solid strategic footing, despite an ever-shifting technological landscape. Keeping up-to-date with viewing habits and market offerings can be a full-time job. But as advertisers adapt to media’s new world order, they face another obstacle, one of equal importance: the inability to generate, track, and compare media measurement across platforms.

We all know that data is more important than ever before. But Brands want more than just raw exposure data. They want assurance that their advertisement is not just reaching its intended, targeted audience, but that its message is being digested and retained. That those three-second views on social media translate to meaningful interactions. And just how the impact of those views compares with an ad placed in another environment. However, truly useful metrics require industry-wide standardization. As reported by MediaPost, “Without standardization, marketers find it exceedingly difficult to maintain messaging consistency, to understand what they are buying and where they are buying it, and to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.” But while standardization is a Herculean task, progress is being made. “There are various options available in market today, from independent bodies like DigiTrust, which is housed within the Interactive Advertising Bureau Tech Lab, from collective efforts like the Ad ID Consortium, as well as from buy-side players like The Trade Desk’s Unified ID Solution.”

Brands want more than just raw exposure data. They want assurance that their advertisement is not just reaching its intended, targeted audience, but that its message is being digested and retained.

As audience-based ad buying options continue to grow, the ability to target and track engagement efficacy is critical. And while many so-called ‘walled-garden’ platforms will, no doubt, be reluctant to share proprietary data, without standardization of audience measurement, the potential of the new, vast array of advertising opportunities will never be realized. This is a problem that demands a solution. And with government regulation looming, it is a problem that requires immediate action. But solving it will require two things that competing businesses are notoriously reluctant to offer: cooperation and sacrifice.

If keeping on top of all these changes feels overwhelming, you’re in the right place. At Tylie, we nerd out on this type of stuff so you don’t have to. Let your trusted experts advise you and keep you in the loop.

A paradigm shift has taken place across the advertising industry. The ideology that emerged to accompany digital’s rise is permeating linear as well. And in order to contend with the new host of ad-free viewing options, ad time is decreasing across all platforms. Therefore, it is more imperative than ever that advertisers make the most of their brand exposure. That each ‘touch’ in their campaign is thoughtful and purposeful.

It has been shown that users prefer ads that speak to their interests directly. So much so, that they are  willing to share personal data in exchange for personalized ads. With digital, ads that follow you around the web have come to be the norm. But now linear is hopping on the targeting bandwagon, shucking off the broad part of old school broadcasting ideology and bringing cross-platform continuity to this curated ad experience philosophy.

This will require more buyer-side collaboration, increased connection between linear buyers and digital buyers. And for linear that will mean a massive shift, both ideologically and logistically. And it won’t happen overnight; this will be a process. But even once you improve linear-digital buyer collaboration, advertisers must face the greatest challenge of this new era: inventory.

Users consume so much media nowadays that it’s imperative to provide a variety of spots and to create an engaging narrative. The gold standard is outstanding creative that is relevant to a potential buyer’s lifestyle.

Effective targeting diminishes the pool of ads that fit a specific user. That leads to problematic frequency issues. While users like ads that speak directly to them and their interests, no one wants to hear the same message over and over. The goal is incremental reach without duplication. And that means you need well-oiled supply-side management, keeping your messaging across platforms interconnected, not fragmented. Speaking to targeted users with messaging that follows an overall narrative strategy, not just a bombardment of ads.

The simple solution to this issue: more inventory. More inventory for all screen types. Personalized, specific, for all formats and all ad lengths. This puts increasing pressure on creative teams. Users consume so much media nowadays that it’s imperative to provide a variety of spots and to create an engaging narrative. The gold standard is outstanding creative that is relevant to a potential buyer’s lifestyle. In order to achieve this, publishers need to develop tools to measure and enforce how ads are playing. Many tools to handle frequency capping are emerging, but with such a wide variety of workflows, solutions must be developed that can function across multiple form factors.

With new challenges constantly arising and evolving, finding that solutions are right for you can be a daunting prospect. At Tylie, solutions are what we do. And as a premiere post services provider, we’re here to help with all of your versioning needs.

Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, Closed Captioning in Broadcast Television has become status quo. And despite some evolution in the methodology for encoding TV captioning over the years (SD to HD to UHD), the shifts in standards have been fairly uniform.

Not so with digital. As the digital landscape has become increasingly fragmented, with new streaming services and platforms constantly popping up, digital captioning formats have followed suit. Considering just a few of the many file formats [SRT (.srt), WebVTT (.vtt), SCC (.scc), DFXP (.xml), TTML (.ttml), SAMI (.smi), CAP (.cap), to SMPTE-TT (.xml)], it’s easy to see how the process can lead to frustration.

The use of subtitles to communicate key product features resulted in a 23 percent uptick in audience comprehension of the ad’s core message.

Despite this complexity, research shows that captioning digital ads is a must. According to research by AdColony and Millward Brown, “more and more adverts are being viewed on computers and mobile devices without sound.” This translates to brands facing “the challenge of producing engaging content that can resonate with consumers, both with or without sound.” In addition to increased user engagement and SEO benefits, the value of subtitles in digital advertisements is further supported by the study’s finding that the use of subtitles to communicate key product features resulted in a 23 percent uptick in audience comprehension of the ad’s core message.

The benefit of captioning in digital ads is clear. But the landscape is increasingly complex. Never fear! At Tylie, our commitment to accessibility is rivaled only by our passion for keeping up to date on the latest industry trends. So you can rest easy knowing that we’ve never met a file type we couldn’t generate. And we’re here to help you navigate the ever-changing world of digital.

No doubt, you’ve taken note of the rise of Connected TV. It’s a standout among the latest deluge of industry buzzwords. You might be wondering what exactly Connected TV is. Or maybe you’re familiar with CTV, but you’re curious as to why advertisers don’t appear to be flocking to the technology with the same enthusiasm as consumers. Don’t worry – we’ve got you.

Connected TV (CTV) refers to any television set that can be connected to the internet and access OTT media services. And with the continued rise of streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Sling TV, just to name a few, CTV has indeed become increasingly prevalent. Today, some 75% of U.S. Households have at least one connected TV device. And 195 million viewers are predicted to watch CTV this year.

While the targeted, automated ad bidding was once strictly confined to online and mobile, the rise of Connected TV is bringing programmatic into the living room.

There’s no doubt that this rapid market saturation is tied to the longstanding trend of cord-cutting. Some 13,000 Americans cancel their cable TV every day. But, although viewers no longer wish to be bound to high cost cable contracts, the allure of the living room remains. People still prefer to watch on the largest screen in their homes, whether that happens via a Smart TV, gaming device, Roku, Apple TV, or Chromecast.

Despite CTV’s widespread adoption by consumers, advertisers haven’t been lockstep with their migration. This is partly because of the fragmentation of the new viewing landscape. And it’s partly because the reach of linear TV, while diminished, remains so powerful. But perhaps the biggest reason is the fact that old habits die hard. It is no small task to change the general thinking around advertising via TV, despite the evolving capabilities. The techniques, infrastructure, and personnel expertise of the traditional linear TV machine are not easily altered. But the sea change has occurred. And the old school broadcasting ideology, focused on just that – casting a broad net and advertising widely and with as much frequency as budgets would allow, has given way to targeting and niche marketing. Generally, showing consumers only ads that are relevant to them. Which studies have shown is preferential to consumers.

Connected TV’s next step is to bring that new school ad ideology into the living room. But the long-standing broadcast model must continue to evolve, finding ways to incorporate targeting and automation into its infrastructure. Programmatic is here to stay. Its undeniable utility can be quantified by its widespread usage — projected to amount to $84 billion in ad-spend by the end of 2019. And while the targeted, automated ad bidding was once strictly confined to online and mobile, the rise of Connected TV is bringing programmatic into the living room. And the ad dollars will follow. It’s a matter of when, not if.

EMarketer summarized it well when they said, “The dynamics of connected TV advertising are challenging given the fragmentation among platforms, relatively small scale and a lack of standardization in data gathering and reporting, but the popularity of the medium makes it a tantalizing ad opportunity.”

It has gone from nebulous metaphor to quintessential sales jargon buzzword. Want to be high tech? On the cutting edge? Hip and happening? The Cloud is the solution to all your woes. But while the idea of your files living up in the sky, ever-available in a fluffy ether, is a nice notion, the reality is a bit less supernatural. In simplest terms, the cloud is a metaphor for software and services that run on remote servers, instead of locally on your computer.

So, despite its vaporous monicker, The Cloud is comprised of physical infrastructure. Your files and programs are living someplace terrestrial. In fact, a lot of places. For example, when you back up a file to iCloud or Google Drive, you are making copies of that file. And the copies of that file now live on several servers in various locations. This redundancy is designed to prevent loss in instance of server failure. But it also creates multiple points of possible data exposure. These points demand great trust in the corporations controlling the servers – both in their security protocols and in their truly deleting all the copies of your files at your request.

At Tylie, not only do we go to great lengths to ensure your media is safe, we pride ourselves on transparency.

As with so many modern conveniences, ease of use threatens to relieve us of necessary vigilance. The convenience trumps the risk. So long as we can access our emails on our phones or stream shows on our laptop, we aren’t very concerned with where our data goes, how it gets there, or how it is handled and protected along the way. That’s why it’s essential for companies to adhere to strict security policies as they migrate file storage and essential software to the cloud.

At Tylie, not only do we go to great lengths to ensure your media is safe, we pride ourselves on transparency. We want you to understand how your media is being handled. We don’t want to confuse you into trusting us. We want to earn your trust by providing clarity and doing what’s best for you and your needs. Cutting edge, without cutting corners.