Hazel Broadley, Author at Lexical Llama

Bridging the Gender Gap in Programmatic

Leave a Comment / Adtech / By Hazel Broadley

An interview with TeqBlaze and Hazel Broadley.

Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself and your professional background?

My foray into adtech began when I joined a boutique PR agency and helped to grow a three-strong team into a global tech PR firm. It was an invaluable experience, but I knew I wanted to focus on the content writing side of the business, having graduated in German and Linguistics.

With marketing teams all too often deploying generalist writers, I saw a gap in the market for specialist adtech content writers with first-hand knowledge of industry trends, challenges and solutions. And so, in 2016, I set up Lexical Llama as a freelance writing service for both agencies and tech firms directly.

Then in 2020, with Covid putting a stop to events, marketing budgets were reallocated to content writing, which led to our rapid expansion. Today, our team comprises three B2B tech writers, a translator and a marketing manager.

How did you first get involved with The Women in Programmatic Network (TWIPN)?

I joined a virtual members session back in June 2023 and met the awesome Iesha White, a programmatic expert who had recently joined the network and taken on the role of building out a new content and communications team for the network.

What role do you play within TWIPN, and what are your primary responsibilities?

Together with Iesha, I co-lead the content team. We’re based in the UK, but help coordinate global comms with the various regional chapter leads. My responsibilities include making sure all community announcements, partnerships and events are communicated through our various channels; facilitating writing opportunities for members; and assisting with virtual and in-person events.

Can you describe the mission of TWIPN and why it’s important for women in the industry?

Over the past four years, TWIPN has evolved into a global organization dedicated to championing and empowering women who work in programmatic, as well as the wider advertising industry (tech, data, adops, sales, marketing, legal, etc.) who are looking to better understand programmatic.

In 2023, the number of women in adtech started to dip, comprising just 35% of the sector – down from 46% in 2021. And so we’re striving to level the playing field once again. We welcome everyone across the ecosystem – i.e. buy side, sell side and intermediaries – and we advocate for equal representation, positions and pay across the industry globally.

How does TWIPN help its members overcome professional challenges?

We offer a range of networking opportunities throughout the year including monthly virtual members sessions in which we invite a guest speaker to discuss a current industry trend, as well as in-person events with live panel discussions.

We have a really supportive community of over 5.6k followers on LinkedIn and over 1k members across our various WhatsApp groups. Despite our size, we’ve created a safe space where everyone feels welcome to share their challenges.

We support each other by sharing industry intel, speaking and writing opportunities, research and other projects that advance the women of our industry. We also collaborate with trade bodies, commercial partners, trade press and events organizers.

What programs or initiatives within TWIPN have been most effective in promoting gender equality in the workplace?

Unfortunately, we still see a number of industry panels, keynotes, roundtables etc, where women are underrepresented. But the good news is, this discrepancy is being called out – by both women and men – which is making event organizers sit up and listen. In response, The Women in Programmatic Network has built out a Speaker List offering a range of programmatic talent.

Could you share a success story from the network that particularly inspired you?

As a result of building and sharing our speaker list, several conference providers have reported being able to put more women on stage.

How has being a part of TWIPN impacted your professional life?

I’ve met so many wonderful people through the network – both women and men – and it’s an honor to be part of such a rapidly-growing community.

I’ve made some lasting relationships, a few of which have turned into clients. But more than that, I’ve been able to keep learning – be it a new acronym, or the technicalities of the latest platform or regulation.

What initiatives or projects within TWIPN are you most excited about currently?

Having gone through a period of significant growth over the past year, we’re about to announce our new UK board.

We’re also revealing the results of our latest DEI member survey at our next virtual event in October.

And we’re hosting a keynote and panel at our next in-person event, Breaking Through the Noise: How to be Heard in a Male-Dominated Environment, in partnership with LiveScore on October 9th.

How do you see the future of women in programmatic advertising evolving?

If the speed of TWIPN’s growth is anything to go by, I think the adtech industry will soon rebalance itself and women will become better represented again.

The respect and encouragement I’ve felt from male peers across the industry has also been more palpable in recent years – towards me as a professional, but also towards the network, and wider female community.

What advice would you give to young women starting their careers in programmatic advertising?

It can be daunting for women in any area of tech, given the current imbalance, but there are various support groups out there, not least TWIPN, but also AdTech Connect, which is geared towards younger or entry-level professionals.
Joining a mentorship program – e.g. Bloom UK – can also be a good way of building confidence.

Are there any emerging trends in programmatic advertising that you think we should watch out for?

Based on what we’re writing at the moment, curation is definitely a hot topic – specifically, how programmatic curation can be used to unlock the potential of the open web as we strive to move beyond the confines of walled gardens.

Attention is also evolving beyond talking about its benefits (alongside viewability) to implementing those metrics in the marketing plan. With the IAB and MRC aiming to release accreditation guidelines by Q1 2025, attention should become an even more viable metric to adopt.

How do you balance professional demands with personal life, and what tips can you offer for managing stress?

Working with a business coach has helped me break down large tasks into bite-size chunks, such as overhauling our creds deck and website.

I also like the Pomodoro Technique, and while I don’t follow it to the minute, standing up and taking a break from the screen every half hour or so helps me recalibrate.

How can someone interested in supporting or joining TWIPN get involved?

It’s free to join and we welcome women from every level, from intern to CEO. Simply register on the website to be added to our WhatsApp and LinkedIn groups. Or to find out more about how to become a volunteer, email the team.

This article first appeared on teqblaze.com/blog on 3.10.24

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The rise and rise of retail media: how brands can leverage its power

Leave a Comment / Adtech, Data, Technology / By Hazel Broadley

Retail media first started to see signs of significant growth in 2016, and it only took five years to 2021 for the market to grow from $1bn to $30bn – less than half the time of social media and a third of the time of search to reach the same figures.

What drove this meteoric growth? There are four key factors that Econsul tancy suggests created this opportunity for retail media:

Retailers facing mounting pressure to unearth new income streams and boost profit margins.
Brand leaders struggling to drive growth in fiercely competitive markets.
Brands needing to pivot their targeting approach with the crumbling of third-party cookies.
The evolution of online consumer behaviour impacting customer journeys and purchasing decisions.

Of course, retail media providers have benefited hugely from this revenue stream. However, it also provides opportunities for brands and agencies to effectively reach new and existing customers.

In this quick guide, we’ll cover what retail media is, its unique value proposition, best practices that brands and agencies can use to take advantage of this massive advertising channel, and examples of brands succeeding with retail media.

What is retail media?

Retail media is the ad space ecommerce retailers sell on their websites or apps to brands who want to influence buying decisions at the point of purchase. However, this can also apply to advertisements retailers place inside their physical stores.

According to Criteo, retail media “enables brands to boost their visibility on the digital shelf”, similar to an endcap or special in-aisle feature in a physical store.”

To manage this channel, retailers have created Retail Media Networks (RMNs), where they can manage their owned media promotional placements and third-party brand advertisements.

Although similar to PPC and Paid Search, the main difference with RMNs is where the ads appear (i.e. on a retailer’s site/app versus Google search results).

A unique value proposition for brands

According to the Skai State of Retail Media 2023, “96% of surveyed individuals confirmed that their retail media programs achieved desired brand impact.”

The primary benefit RMNs provide is access to the retailer’s first-party data for relevant and accurate targeting capabilities, which has gained significant importance with the coming demise of third-party cookies.

Another benefit is providing a brand-safe environment, giving brands the confidence that their ads won’t appear alongside misinformation, hate speech or other types of content they don’t want to associate with (a common downside of advertising in social walled gardens).

For agencies, retail media platforms create a streamlined media buying process to help track and manage campaigns across multiple retailers.

Key players in retail media

It’s no surprise that Amazon is currently dominating the market share of retail media globally, and in Europe specifically, it’s almost 640% ahead of its closest competitor, eBay.

In the US, Amazon is still at the top of the leader board as the most important RMN to marketers, but Walmart and Target are in close pursuit, with others such as Instacart, Kroger, Meijer, and Best Buy trailing behind.

In the UK, dominant RMNs include Tesco, which launched its RMN towards the end of 2021 and continually evolves its offering thanks to 21m Clubcard holders; and Sainsbury’s (powered by Nectar360), which boasts the UK’s largest coalition loyalty programme with over 20m members.

Retail media best practices for brands and agencies

While the benefits of including retail media in the marketing mix are clear, how can brands leverage its power?

Foster collaboration, not silos: Investing in retail media isn’t a one-department decision. It affects marketing, ecommerce, trade marketing, finance, and multiple key decision-makers within the business, particularly those developing brand strategies. To avoid missing critical information and conflicting interests, it’s best to create internal collaboration opportunities and data-sharing rather than operating in silos.

Invest in building expertise: Even if outsourcing advertising to agencies, it’s still best practice to develop internal expertise on retail media to provide overall strategy and better understand the impact of campaigns. Having internal data analysts and experience in performance marketing are great foundations for transitioning into a retail media strategy.

Be selective with RMN partners: Rather than relying on ‘spray and pray’, a better approach is to evaluate potential partners according to your most important criteria using a joint business planning strategy:

Does the retailer’s positioning and objectives align with the brand?
What are their strengths and weaknesses, and their short vs long-term goals?

Answering these questions can help narrow down potential RMN partners that would provide the best collaboration opportunities for the brand.

Identify the right metrics: Finally, when building a retail media strategy, it’s crucial to consider which KPIs should be tracked according to the brand’s goals. For example, if the goal of the campaign is to increase customer acquisition, brands can use the RMN to track product sales, sometimes even at the SKU level. However, if the goal is to increase brand awareness, the RMN should be able to report on the number of impressions the ads achieve.

If partnering with multiple RMNs, it’s important to understand there is no industry standard – each network will be working to its own methodology in terms of campaign execution and reporting.

Brands doing it right: examples of retail media campaigns

There are a number of brands seeing overwhelming success with retail media. Here are just a few we’ve handpicked from Amazon case studies:

Solo Fresh Coffee

The Japanese coffee brand Solo Fresh Coffee saw a noticeable decline in product page visits, and their sales had seemingly peaked, so they reevaluated their strategy to focus on brand awareness. They hired Barriz, an Amazon Ads advanced partner, and using Amazon’s media planning suite and Amazon’s DSP, achieved their goals:

They increased the volume of the audience browsing Solo Fresh Coffee’s product detail pages by 209% YoY in January to March 2023.
Compared with sales goals, actual sales increased by 14.4%, while YoY sales went up 35%.

Jameson

The best-selling Irish whiskey in the world, Jameson wanted to drive awareness of its Black Barrel product and credentials during a key, yet fiercely competitive selling period in the alcoholic beverage industry: Christmas.

Jameson developed full-funnel activation with Amazon Ads with an omnichannel measurement strategy (which included an offline sales study with Circana Lift). The results of their campaign were impressive:

Streaming TV ads delivered a 98% completion rate, exceeding the Amazon Ads internal benchmark.
The campaign also drove a strong ROI across offline and online sales, with a 31% uplift vs Circana benchmarks, while offline sales specifically saw an 81% uplift vs Circana benchmarks.

Milk-Bone

For dog lovers worldwide, Milk-Bone is a household brand of dog treats that cater to every dog’s age, dietary needs, and palate. What’s particularly interesting about this case study was the use of Alexa interactive audio ads to create a branded audio experience.

The success Milk-Bone found in this case study shows great promise for voice-activated devices and advertisements:

Amazon’s first-party insights showed a new-to-brand rate of 31% among customers who asked Alexa to add Milk-Bone products to their basket, outperforming the category benchmark rate by 1.4X.
The results from a campaign-specific brand lift from a third-party measurement vendor, Kantar, showed a 1.7X consideration lift due to the exposure from branded experiences with Alexa.
Over 11K users engaged with the More Dog branded experience, with almost 86% of sessions lasting more than 30 seconds.

Now is the time to diversify with retail media

Data shows the growth of retail media will not slow down anytime soon, especially in a world where brands must reevaluate their approach to reaching their target audience without third-party cookies. Adding a retail media strategy to the marketing mix can help this obstacle into an opportunity while reaching brand new audiences.
If you need help articulating your thoughts on retail media or digital marketing, we can help. Chat with us todayto learn more.

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Privacy Sandbox: keeping the conversation going in 2024

2 Comments / Adtech / By Hazel Broadley

The introduction of Google’s Privacy Sandbox and impending deprecation of third-party cookies are reshaping the ad tech industry – which is undergoing arguably its most significant transformation in a decade.

Two recent industry debates, hosted by The Women in Programmatic Network and IAB Tech Lab respectively, brought together key stakeholders to explore the implications of these changes.

Here’s our key takeaways on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

1. The impact on revenue and reporting

One of the most pressing concerns raised during these meetings was the potential impact on revenue and reporting. For publishers, for instance, “the yield gap between Chrome and Safari inventory is about 25%,” according to one participant.

This suggests that while the removal of third-party cookies may not be as catastrophic as some fear, it will undoubtedly require adjustments to current monetisation strategies.

But time is of the essence. As one industry leader pointed out, “buyers should look at what’s happening to their reporting now.” Shifting to Privacy Sandbox will necessitate new ways of tracking and measuring ad performance, which could pose challenges for advertisers used to relying on third-party cookies.

2. The need for testing and engagement

The IAB urges the industry to start testing tools, emphasising the importance of being prepared, with one participant advising: “if you haven’t started testing yet, IAB Tech Lab has, alongside its [Fit Gap Analysis] report, provided a bunch of tools to help.”

The sentiment was echoed by others, who stressed the need for the industry to actively engage with the changes. As one participant noted, “it’s important to start talking about it internally within your organisations and at least form a steering group, or a collection of two or three individuals, who are focused on it.”

3. The challenge of resource allocation

Transitioning to Privacy Sandbox is not only a technical challenge, but also requires resources to manage. As one participant noted, “this is a serious time suck and an unnecessary burden in many ways.”

Smaller publishers, in particular, may struggle to allocate the necessary resources to navigate these changes. “Publishers might be looking at one or two tech heads [to oversee the transition]. And smaller publishers, who also have less resources to put on direct sales partnerships, are therefore really reliant on the open marketplace and being able to monetise inventory that they have.”

4. The role of Google

Google’s role in this transition has been a topic of much discussion. As one industry leader pointed out, the tech giant has “inserted a new layer of ad tech with literally no oversight, no responsibility, and no contracts.” This raises questions about transparency and governance in the new paradigm.

The sentiment was echoed by others, who expressed concerns about Google’s dominance in the industry. As one participant attested, “quite a lot of us are heavily reliant on Google.”

Indeed, this reliance on Google underscores the importance of ensuring the transition to Privacy Sandbox is fair and transparent.

5. The potential for a new advertising model

Despite the challenges, some industry leaders see the opportunity for a new, more effective advertising model. As one person admitted, “maybe the way we as an industry have been running targeted ad campaigns wasn’t actually that perfect anyway. Maybe there was a huge amount of wastage. Maybe it’s not been great for the planet. Maybe there are better ways of doing this.”

This sentiment suggests a potential silver lining to such a transition. While it will undoubtedly pose challenges, it’s without doubt an opportunity for the industry to reassess current practices and develop more effective, sustainable advertising models.

Google’s response

In a further development, Google posted a riposte to the IAB Tech Lab’s Privacy Sandbox Fit Gap Analysis, acknowledging their effort while pointing out perceived inaccuracies and misunderstandings.

Google emphasised that the Privacy Sandbox aims to enhance user privacy while supporting digital advertising, noting that it’s not designed to be a direct replacement for third-party cookies or cross-site tracking. Instead, it aims to adapt and invent new approaches to meet business objectives without compromising user privacy.

Google addressed technical assessments, clarified misconceptions, and highlighted areas where ad tech providers also need to innovate on top of the sandbox. It also welcomed further collaboration and feedback from IAB Tech Lab and the wider industry, reaffirming its commitment to phasing out third-party cookies by the second half of 2024, contingent on resolving remaining competition concerns.

The road ahead

The transition to Privacy Sandbox is a complex process that raises many questions and challenges. However, it also presents an opportunity for the industry to reassess current processes and develop more innovative ad solutions.

As we continue to navigate this shift, it will be crucial to keep the discussion going and engage with the tools and resources available. The future of digital advertising may be uncertain, but discussions like this will provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

As one industry leader aptly put it, “whichever way you look at it, it’s going to be an interesting year.”

Indeed, the journey to cookieless solutions promises to be just that.

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Tackling the attention deficit, one impression at a time

Adtech, Data / By Hazel Broadley

As up to 10,000 ads continue to flood our screens every day, the fight to gain real human attention has never been so rife.

But as this figure rises – while attention spans remain the same – the chance of us seeing an ad inevitably diminishes. This results in what we call the attention deficit – something the ad industry is striving to overcome.

But how do we begin to measure true attention, let alone improve it?

Combining viewability with attention

For years, the industry has focused on standardising metrics around viewability, i.e., how much of an ad is visible on screen and for how long. And this is still important. After all, you can’t engage with an ad if you can’t see it.

But the industry is beginning to recognise that ‘viewable’ does not equal ‘viewed’. In fact, as consumers, we ignore almost 35% of all programmatic display ads. And so it’s become clear that viewability metrics alone are not enough. They are more like ‘hygiene’ metrics rather than predictors of quality. And that’s why we need to bolster this campaign insight with attention data.

Steps to leveraging attention

As Rob Hall, CEO at Playground xyz explains, there are generally four steps to leveraging attention.

First, you need solid research. This should be from your own campaign data, but also learnings from other brands who have tested the impact of different ad formats, content types, devices, channels or targeting strategies on attention metrics.

Second, once you’ve gathered this, you can use it to enhance your channel planning, by creating and scheduling campaigns that have the best chance of performing.

Third comes the task of actually measuring attention, by tracking key attention metrics such as hover rate and touch rate on a mobile device, plus more traditional performance metrics such as CTR, bounce rate and conversion rate.

And finally, to have the best chance of engaging your audience in the long term, you need to be able to optimise in real time according to what’s working and what’s not. This kind of dynamic creative optimisation (DCO), focused on attention, will be a key driver of campaign performance over the coming years.

Using data across TV, desktop, tablet and mobile, we can measure a whole range of attention metrics. But perhaps the most prevalent is Attention Time.

The new metric in town

Attention Time is important in any campaign because it measures how long a user is physically eyeballing the ad. Once you’ve measured this, you can then look at a host of other user activities, such as clicks, cursor position, touch rate, scroll rate and depth, audio on/off, volume etc.

Measuring engagement with eye-tracking data

As Lumen Research’s MD Mike Follett suggests, eye tracking data, used at scale across different channels, shows that “when users do look at an ad, it tends to perform really well”.

There are a number of attention technology partners on the market including Lumen, Playground xyz, Amplified Intelligence and Adelaide, that can help marketers determine true engagement through two main types of eye-tracking measurement: proxy-based and gaze-based.

When testing creative or context, gaze-based (or eye-gaze) metrics are generally thought to be a more accurate method than proxy-based metrics. This is because they demonstrate that a user has actually engaged with an ad. This data comes from vast opt-in panels of consumers allowing eye-tracking cameras to follow the path of their eyes across the screen as they consume the open web.

By combining this with the other user activities above, you can get more granular with each impression, and optimise the ad creative or format more effectively.

Now is the time to tackle the deficit

When looking for an attention partner, be sure to ask them:

how they define attention (e.g. do they include all user actions?)
what kind of eye-tracking they use – gaze-based or proxy-based data, or (preferably) both
and how long they will apply optimisation to ensure the most accurate measurement

As the range of attention metrics grows, so too does the need for industry standardisation of these metrics. But for now, there’s no time to waste when it comes to experimenting and A/B testing with different creatives and formats. This way, you can get ahead of the curve before attention-first campaign strategies become mainstream, and make every impression count.

If you need help sharing your thoughts on attention with the world, we’re here to help. Chat to us today to learn more.

This article was originally posted on Digilah (November 2023)

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

Leave a Comment / Adtech, Technology / By Hazel Broadley

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, web browsers are quickly deprecating these snippets of code. Apple blocked third-party cookies by default in Safari, while in January, Google announced a complete replacement in Chrome by 2022.

Despite this, the majority of digital advertising still relies on them. In response, we recently spoke to leading industry experts about the future of the ad tech ecosystem. We asked: how smaller publishers in particular can adapt.

Here’s what we found:

Dare to diversify

There isn’t yet a predominant replacement for third-party cookies, so we don’t know where (or when) the industry will settle. In the meantime, there’ll be a fracturing of ad tech. 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 evidence that it 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 a popular 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 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 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

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Is deepfake technology a threat to society?

Leave a Comment / Data, Technology / By Hazel Broadley

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.

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

Leave a Comment / SEO / By Hazel Broadley

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

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Hazel Broadley