Introducing Pubcomm – Publift’s very own Publisher Community

In December, Publift held our first Pubcomm event. Pubcomm was a meetup aimed at local publishers eager to learn, share & explore new ideas. Unlike other events in the industry, Pubcomm specifically focused on SMBs – looking at real pressing issues for smaller publishers and exploring opportunities.

‍

"Talking to other publishers is the most beneficial aspect of the event."

- OzBargain

‍

"Thanks for putting on a great event, I really enjoyed it. As I said, I usually hate 'networking', but this didn't feel like that. I think the initiative to get smaller publishers to meet and chat is excellent.

-Compare TV

‍

"I felt the honesty of the presentations; they were true and free from bias."

- Anonymous

‍

Fuse Presentation

We began the evening with a presentation on Fuse – Publift’s ad management platform – and how we strive to help smaller publishers navigate the advertising landscape and utilise the latest and best ad technology.

Case studies looking at a few of our clients gave attendees insight into how some specific optimisations (ad layout optimisation, header bidding and deal management) have impacted on ad revenue.

This was followed by a snapshot of what’s on the roadmap for Publift for this year, 2018. This roadmap includes further Pubcomm events (Melbourne, you’re up next!), progressions in header bidding, Exchange bidding going live (this has now been rolled out across our clients, with exciting initial results!) and Publift’s tag management system.

‍

Publisher Content - On Publift's Balcony

As more guests arrived, they were welcomed with a drink and made their way out to the Publift Balcony. Here publishers were treated to a presentation from our industry experts at Publift.

After an introduction to the evening from Colm, we enjoyed a thought-provoking talk from Ben, our technical lead, on BlockChain. This talk acted as an introduction to blockchain, cryptocurrencies and how this new technology is going to impact the digital advertising landscape.

‍

We then heard from Tobin on some key impacts on small publishers in Australia right now. The discussion included industry trends, and the shifts that we are seeing in advertiser spend.

The focus was on two key influencers in the advertising landscape right now: header bidding and Data.

Header Bidding was a definite focal point, having had the largest impact on publisher revenue of all optimisations that we’ve seen to date. With more players entering the header bidding landscape and different header bidding solutions on the market, it can be a difficult landscape to navigate.

A common concern is that getting header bidding setup takes a lot of work, and requires too much dev time and too many resources for most small/medium publishers.

We have put a lot of time into exploring header bidding solutions and finding a scalable way that we can implement header bidding for small and medium publishers, in the most efficient way possible. We were in fact the first in AUNZ to implement Rubicon Fastlane across our publishers. Since that time, we have continued to put resources into testing other solutions including wrapper solutions and prebid.

This has helped us to develop a scalable solution to get this technology out to publishers in the AUNZ market, so that they can reap the benefits of header bidding, without having the burden of heavy dev involvement.

Having now implemented header bidding across each of the publishers we work with and have made the process as smooth as possible. header bidding on it’s own has reliably been providing at least a 30% increase in CPMs across publishers, meaning huge advances in revenue. We are so excited to be able to roll this technology out to smaller publishers in a scalable way where we absorb the majority of associated costs!

We then turned the conversation to data. This is a topic that constantly comes up with our publishers. Should you be collecting user data and selling impressions and audiences to advertisers? Which data partners are best to use? How can you make DMP’s work for you?

This is an interesting topic and something that we are continually learning about ourselves. The conversation here delved into a bit of an open floor discussion. We discussed the successes and the struggles involved with data monetisation, and heard about the experiences of some of our publishing partners and attendees who have looked into data solutions themselves, including Mamamia and Conversant Media.

‍

Time For Some Fun!

Once we had delved into all content, it was time for a quick quiz game. Teaming up, guest’s trivia knowledge was put to the test. It was a fun time for all with some quirky prizes up for grabs.

For the last part of the night we all enjoyed a few drinks, some snacks and mingling with other publishers, whilst listening to live music. We are pleased to have received very positive feedback, with publishers enjoying the content, as well as having the opportunity to meet and network with other publishers. All in all it was a great time and we can’t wait to host the next one!