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Digital marketers face an ongoing challenge in the form of “walled gardens,” closed online ecosystems where it is difficult to access user data. As we get ready for 2024, it’s more important than ever for marketers to evaluate the current challenges and opportunities surrounding walled gardens and to take stock of the impact of walled gardens in marketing as an industry.
What is a walled garden?
A walled garden is a closed online ecosystem controlled entirely by one tech company. Advertising on these ecosystems is fairly locked down, as major tech companies with walled gardens tend to tightly control access to the user data, content, and advertising that appears within the ecosystems.
Some examples of walled garden ecosystems include Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. These walled gardens have particular advantages, like access to massive user bases and precise targeting within the individual ecosystems. It can also be difficult to reach said audiences outside of the ecosystems, reducing the amount of control you have over your advertising strategies.
Learn more about walled gardens.
Learn the differences between walled gardens and hedged gardens.
Integrated marketing is more important than ever
Today, it’s become more crucial to connect with consumers over multiple touchpoints, which can be done from tech like connected TV (CTV) to websites, mobile devices, and even shopping in a physical store. However, as integrated marketing gains utility, many platforms with walled garden ecosystems have increased, making a truly integrated and personalized marketing strategy more difficult in many situations. As a result, many marketers have realized the value of a more streamlined marketing approach, emphasizing the importance of fully integrated advertising strategies.
Though there are surely marketing advantages to gain from walled garden ecosystems, especially in audience size, the challenges they pose will require you to innovate and find more creative ways to engage with your audience from platform to platform.
Perspectives on walled gardens from Cannes Lions 2023
Offering a poignant view of industry trends and ideas, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity of 2023 had much to say about the significance of walled gardens in the marketing world. Let’s look at two key takeaways from this year’s festival.
Retail media
In recent years, many retail companies have started selling ad space within their own walled garden shopping platforms, dubbed “retail media.” Platforms like Amazon and Walmart have developed their own particular advertising ecosystems where they sell ads to marketers within the shopping environment itself.
Navigating the sell-side of retail media’s walled gardens
While retail media offers marketers unique opportunities, it’s not without its challenges. For one, ad space in these environments is limited, so the competition can be difficult on the sell-side, leading to higher ad costs. Additionally, this shift in dynamic also forces marketers to change how they prioritize their marketing channels, looking closer at the results of their efforts rather than focusing on particular channels within the platforms themselves.
Opportunities in the buy-side of retail media’s walled gardens
Brands on the buy-side see various benefits from advertising within retail media channels and walled gardens. By browsing in an online shopping environment, the users in these ecosystems are likely high-intent shoppers, people who are further down the sales funnel and who are ready to make a purchase soon. Shoppers can also be precisely targeted within these environments, as marketers are given the ability to access very specific audience segments based on details like shopping behavior, preferences, and even purchase history.
Omnichannel marketing
To more effectively engage audiences even among an abundance of walled garden ecosystems, speakers at the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival discussed the importance of omnichannel marketing. By emphasizing strategies that reach the consumer through multiple touchpoints, marketers can deliver a unified brand experience across channels. This allows marketers to focus more on results than specific advertising channels, including walled garden platforms.
Walled gardens aren’t going away in the near future
Though various challenges are associated with walled gardens in advertising, they aren’t going anywhere. So, what’s the current state of these environments throughout the industry?
Efforts are being made to break down walled gardens in tech
In a handful of countries, regulatory actions have been put forward to address how dominant many major tech companies are in their respective markets. One major example of this is Meta and Google’s entanglements in Canada. Currently, neither company can display news on their websites in the Canadian market. This decision was reached to give Canadian news agencies more control over their advertising revenue since, previously, the tech giants received more views and, therefore, gained the ad revenue. Though relatively small, this does indicate a certain shift in dynamic.
Why companies are resisting
Despite their challenges, walled gardens in 2023 persisted, mainly because they are particularly adept at generating revenue for the tech companies that control them. In 2022, 78 percent of global digital advertising revenue came from these closed ecosystems, and projections expect that figure to rise to 83 percent by 2027. From the viewpoint of a company that operates in a walled garden, the idea of releasing their control over their environment represents losing out on a stream of vast revenue, making letting go of a walled garden ecosystem an unattractive prospect.
The future of walled gardens
As time progresses, what can digital marketers like you expect from walled garden ecosystems in the near future?
A cookieless future
A huge element to consider is the transition to a cookieless future. Many major browsers have begun phasing out the use of third-party cookies. In the wake of this decision, many are looking for reasonable alternatives that allow for behavior tracking and more personalized advertising experiences. Solutions like Experian’s identity resolution can provide a strong alternative option, allowing marketing strategies to adapt to the current landscape.
An influx of mini gardens
You should also anticipate the proliferation of various smaller, specialized walled garden ecosystems in the future. These so-called “mini gardens” specialize in more niche audiences and industries, and they can present their own challenges and opportunities.
Alternative IDs
As you search for new identification methods outside cookies, various alternatives have presented themselves, requiring further exploration and experimentation. Among these are privacy-compliant solutions like Unified ID 2.0, which allow you to serve more personalized ads without compromising the consumer’s privacy.
Navigating the evolving landscape of walled gardens in 2024
As we begin 2024, you will continue facing opportunities and challenges regarding walled gardens. The 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity re-emphasized how important it is for marketers to stress omnichannel marketing within walled garden environments and become well acquainted with identity resolution solutions as we move into a cookie-less future. All of this requires you to become comfortable with walled gardens being here to stay and innovate to navigate an evolving and developing landscape.
We’re here to help you navigate the evolving landscape of walled gardens in 2024. Contact us today.
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It is time for us to polish off our crystal ball and give our predictions straight from consumers’ fingertips for the hot products of the 2012 holiday season. Gadgets will reign across many ages Tablets including LeapPads, Tabeos, iPads, Kindles and others will continue to be a popular gift this year, with more choices than ever. On the list of top product-related search terms driving traffic to the Retail 500 category of sites, Kindle Fire HD and Windows 8 top the list as new products. Additionally, Meep!, a child friendly tablet appeared in the top fifteen. Accessories for both phones and tablets will also be popular, especially as the variety grows for iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. A reoccurring favorite gift for the holidays is UGGs which shows a decrease year over year. However, another brand with a similar product is Bearpaw, which is in the top ten searches and has seen big growth year over year. Source: Experian Hitwise Dolls, video games and Furbys, oh my! To identify the popular toys for gifts this year, we researched product-related search terms driving traffic to ToysRUs.com compared to last year’s holiday season. We uncovered trends in the doll category, Doc McStuffins as number one on the list, along with the classic Barbie, which saw a growth in searches year over year. The Furby is making a strong comeback at the number two spot with a reboot and new features. Another trend here is tablets, from branded searches like LeapPad and Kurio there is also the generic term ‘tablets for kids’. In the video game category, the new Wii U that is debuting just in time for Black Friday and should be a big gift this year, along with searches for PS3 games and the Nintendo 3ds xl are all in the top 20 searches. Source: Experian Hitwise Keywords of the consumer to identify demand Beyond product names, it is important to understand the actual way people search, using key phrases and questions. Last year, for example, there was a lot of activity around ‘in-stock’ products, such as the LeapPad explorer, which was hugely popular and quickly sold out in many stores. Retailers and marketers should monitor this throughout the season and make sure to optimize for in stock if there is a popular product that they have available. Source: Experian Hitwise Consumers also focus on what is the ‘best’ – so we see search activity around ‘best place to buy’, particularly around electronics. Questions such as ‘where to buy a’ specific product are also common, such as ‘where to buy a kindle’. These phrases offer opportunities to boost search campaigns by considering how consumers phrase their questions to ensure to capture these searches. Source: Experian Hitwise Quick tip: In the retail category there will tend to be a lot of retail branded store terms but to keep up with holiday search behavior and help make analysis quick, create portfolios of branded terms to easily exclude those from a certain category. When you strip out all the variations of that term you are able to gain insight into product searches that are most popular to a certain site or category. For more insight on the hot product trends for this year from our Hitwise trend-spotters, watch our webcast.
The holiday season – a most wonderful time of the year for retailers – is underway and marketers are tweaking their campaigns for better customer engagement and enchantment. There are many channels in which to reach top customers and prospective customers, and the new holiday season is a great time to refine strategies and tactics to ensure success. To help marketers in their quest, Experian Marketing Services recently conducted a market research study and learned that email marketing trumped all other tactics as the most successful initiative during the 2011 holiday season. Of the 84.2 percent who used email marketing, 95.8 percent reported that their campaigns were successful. Ninety-three percent said they planned to increase or maintain the same level of investment for the 2012 season. In addition to email, the study showed that paid search and online display advertising were the next most successful marketing tactics of the 2011 holiday season, with 48.9 percent naming search and 34.8 naming online display advertising as extremely or very successful campaign tactics. Our internal experts are currently looking at real-time data around these and other marketing channels and will present what they’ve learned during a live webinar on Thursday, October 25th at 1:00 p.m. EST. This information should prove very helpful to marketers who want to improve their campaigns based on current trends and results. Register for the holiday webinar and you’ll receive all of the survey data in the form of a 2012 holiday marketing white paper. Here’s to a joyous and profitable holiday season!
Experian Marketing Services pinpoints rising social network sites in new study – Instagram and Pinterest lead the pack According to a new study by Experian Marketing Services, niche social networks significantly increased their market share of all visits to social sites, with Instgram and Pinterest leading the pack. The following graph illustrates the global growth between July 2011 and July 2012, based on share of visits to all sites by country: Social site North America Australia Hong Kong New Zealand Singapore UK Instagram 17,319% 362% 132% 843% 8121% 2028% Pinterest 5124% 798% 2373% 643% 623% 1489% Other niche social networks that have experienced significant gain include Stock Twits in the US, Redidt in Australia, and FanPop in the UK. According to Bill Tancer, head of Global Research at Experian Marketing Services, the growth of Instagram and Pinterest over the past year has been successful because they haven’t tried to be ‘another Facebook.’ Both networks are image based – something people love and relate to better than just words. For retail brands, sites like Pinterest present a great opportunity to promote products in a compelling and organized way to a wide group of people, globally. Deeper functionally, combined with a lower technical barrier to entry, will result in new leaders in social media being created, accepted and used within a matter of days – compared to the rate of adoption happening now over the course of weeks and months. Also included in the study for July 2011 to July 2012: Country Social network Description Percentage increase of market share of visits to All Sites between July 2011 to July 2012 North America www.skillwho.com Social networking community which allow users to find people with skills from friends, friends of friends, local area or the community. 7435% increase http://stocktwits.com StockTwits is an open, community-powered investment idea and information service. 943% increase Australia www.reddit.com Site where users vote for what is popular or not. 177% increase Brazil Google+ Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles, and introduces new services identified as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. 5750% increase New Zealand www.reddit.com Site where users vote for what is popular or not. 107% increase Singapore https://steamcommunity.com Community site that assists users in finding games to play, people to play against, and serves as a meeting place for friends and team mates. 124% UK Google+ Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles, and introduces new services identified as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. 476% http://www.fanpop.com Network of fan clubs for fans of television, movies, music and more to discuss and share photos, videos, news and opinions with fellow fans. 178% What social networks do you use most frequently? Do the results of this study surprise you at all? Feel free to share your thoughts with our readers in the comments section below.