Karim Attia is Chief Business Development Officer at nugg.ad, a leading European data company. Here he outlines the nugg.ad approach to collecting and segmenting data, why questionnaire can work outside Germany and how the company is addressing privacy concerns.
Can you give an overview of the nugg.ad proposition in the UK market?
KA: With our Predictive Behavioural Targeting (PBT) solution, we offer the UK market the most successful target group infrastructure in Europe. Based on our solution, we offer features that increase campaign efficiency ranging from performance to branding. With the Brand Measurement tool that we introduced last year, we are able to measure the effects of brand campaigns, while Audience Insights provides web analytics for the first time with detailed target group monitoring. The latest nugg.ad product, Content Targeting, enables websites to be highly personalised to the visitor, based on their profile, in real time. As you can see, nugg.ad has a lot to offer...
How is nugg.ad helping publishers get better insights into their audiences?
KA: We allow publishers to obtain knowledge about the socio-demographics, product interests and topic affinities of any of their visitors and then use this knowledge for targeting or content optimisation. This includes knowledge that can never be generated through pure content-based monitoring.
How would a typical publisher work with nugg.ad – and what are the advantages for publishers using your technology?
If a publisher is interested in working with nugg.ad, we can connect them to our PBT system in no time. Their inventory will be tagged and questionnaires sent out to visitors to their portfolio. In fact PBT can be used for any campaign purpose. And thanks to our Open Targeting Platform, campaign efficiency is maximised by the top-quality target groups delivered as a cross vendor standard. Since our target audience parameters are standardised for all our customers, it is very easy and flexible to steer campaigns across the inventory of several publishers. This means if you are targeting, for example, females between 20-29 years old, who are heavy users of hair colouring, they will be the same standard variables on all our customer’s portfolios, making sure that you get your target group in the same quality everywhere. Last but not least, continuous support offered through our consulting and monitoring services will ensure publishers optimally use our wide range of products and services.
How do publishers use the nugg.ad data to increase revenues? Can they sell it to third parties?
KA: Top-quality target groups are traded at CPMs that are well above the RON/ROS prices. Naturally, it is also possible for publishers to offer other publishers specific target group knowledge, which they have generated from their sites, over the OTP.
Are there plans to integrate with DSPs, SSPs and exchanges to allow publishers to sell their data? Will you build your exchange now that your parent company has AdCloud in Germany?
KA: Currently, nothing like this is planned. Our positioning is expressly as an enabler, not as a marketplace.
How do you do look-alike modelling on users that are happy to give up data? What is the process involved?
This is based on complex statistical models and sophisticated machine-learning algorithms which make our Predictive Behavioural Targeting so effective. This is collated from a combination of anonymous data from user’s surf-behaviour and special surveys we implement via our customer’s websites.
It would seem German users are happy to fill in surveys – but generally people in the UK have a distrust of both online or offline surveys. How are you going to incentivise users to participate?
KA: There are indeed national differences in the completion of online questionnaires. Questionnaires are adapted depending on the market. Also, consumers in the UK marketplace are happy to complete our questionnaires as we are very clear about our data/privacy policy.
Are there any privacy concerns around the way nugg.ad collects data? Will your business model be affected by the incoming privacy directive on third party cookie tracking?
KA: No, not at all. Since its inception nugg.ad has made the issue of data protection an essential element of corporate culture and works exclusively with anonymous user data. nugg.ad was the first targeting company to receive statutory certification for meeting the most stringent data protection requirements. With the EuroPriSe seal and the ULD data protection seal of approval we now have two awards declaring our solution as exemplary. Our CEO, Stephan Noller also holds the position as Chairman of the IAB Policy Committee at the IAB Europe, and was instrumental in the development of the IAB Framework for the e-Privacy Directive. Put simply - treating our users in a fair and transparent manner lies at the heart of our approach.