A Year in Review: 2020
"Difficulties mastered are opportunities won."
Pandemic challenges
The global pandemic has been one of the biggest shakeups of a lifetime to our industries, markets and daily lives. During these turbulent times, our top priorities have been to keep communities informed about COVID-19, to engage with our clients and to stay connected with our team members.
Connecting users to credible sources of information
MGID has been supporting public health agencies to keep communities safe and informed. To help the health organizations handle COVID-19 awareness measures, we provided the MGID’s native advertising platform capacities free of charge.
Livestream events and digital conferences
To help our clients and partners find ways to navigate “the new normal,” we launched MGID Talks Live, a series of global streams with recognized experts and industry leaders. We also have been involved in a wide range of industry conferences, including DMEXCO, which was held in an all-digital format this year.
Adjusting to WFH mode
Nothing is more important than the safety and wellbeing of our team members. In 2020, we successfully adjusted to a work from home set-up and provided our team with the technical tools to navigate this new workflow.
A year in native
2020 was the year for change in the digital media landscape. Let’s take a look at the major shifts and defining moments that occurred in the advertising market.
Mozilla’s Enhanced Tracking Protection
For their latest release of the Firefox browser, Mozilla defaulted their Enhanced Tracking Protection. This step effectively means traffic from Firefox can not be monetized unless publishers can force their audiences to individually allow certain trackers. Thus, Mozilla and other tech companies that were led by this example push publishers to take action on data transparency and find a workable alternative to cookie tracking.
Apple's privacy changes
In June 2020, Apple announced that with the release of iOS 14, for each app that a user installs, they will need to specifically opt-in to make their IDFA available to any party, for any purpose. With this change, users must give explicit permission for app publishers to track them across different apps and websites or to share information with third parties. In the fall, Apple hit pause on new privacy measures until the beginning of 2021.
California Consumer Privacy Act and Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act
CCPA came into effect on January 1, 2020, while its enforcement started on July 1. On the other hand, enforcement of Thailand's PDPA was scheduled for May 2020 but was delayed to May 31, 2021. The privacy laws undoubtedly affect DMPs that provide audience segments to advertisers. Publishers also have to adapt by complying with the new regulations and make strategic choices on further use of their first-party data.
TCF v2.0 and the falling value of third-party data
On August 15, IAB's TCF v2.0 took full effect across all stakeholders in the advertising supply chain. Essentially, this framework was created to help businesses gather user’s consent, exchange data transparently and ensure compliance with key regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy Directive. MGID has fully renewed its tech stack and implemented all TCF v2.0 requirements.
Declining budgets and anticipated bounce back next year
2020 has been one of the most trying, unpredictable years for advertising and media industries. Normally, we would talk about the annual growth of advertising, but this year, the average drop in ad spends amounted to 4.2%-4.4%. Half of publishers and media companies surveyed by Digiday had to reduce their headcounts in 2020. After the strong decline, 55% of publishers and 45% of agency respondents anticipate a double-digit revenue growth next year.
MGID milestones
In 2020, MGID has grown to over 700 employees, 11 offices around the world and 200 countries and territories served.
Here’s just a glimpse of what we have done in the past 12 months.
4,229,120,945,889
content recommendations
1,467,731,538,158
viewable impressions
4,350,020,212
clicks
173,235
new campaigns created
30,180
publisher websites added in 2020
1,011,993
ad units created
120
advertising categories
17
MGID babies were born
Together apart
Even though Covid-19 upended our work lives, we continue to stay connected remotely, awaiting our reunion.
Moving forward together
At MGID, we are focused on strengthening our ability to innovate and provide value-added services by recruiting new talents, as well as training and mentoring our employees.
Now, we are looking for both experienced veterans and fresh talents in ad tech to join MGID’s international expansion in 2021 and beyond. If you are adventurous, ambitious and curious, you’ll find just the right cultural fit working with us. We never settle for anything in our quest to improve ourselves and the business we run.
Our new partners
From the entire team at MGID, we want to thank all our clients, partners and facilitators for the progress achieved this year. 2020 has brought us new partnerships, and we are excited for the new opportunities.
Thought leadership by MGID
What’s ahead in 2021? Major trends rounding out 2020
Contextual intelligence
In the post-cookie reality, contextual ads are the tool that is seen to solve the targeting dilemma and bring transparency to the advertising ecosystem. Contextual intelligence solutions, in their turn, allow fine-tuning a consumer’s journey and engaging at the most appropriate touchpoints. In the years to come, we may expect an enforced revolution with meaningful emotion-based interactions with ads in contextually relevant environments.
Further expansion of AI solutions
Not only will targeting capabilities be driven by AI technology but also ad creation, content personalization and engagement. As a result, it will be possible to instantly identify new audience segments, reach them in brand-suitable environments, detect patterns along the customer journey, and adjust the campaign accordingly.
More CPG brands going direct-to-consumer
This year’s lockdown has catapulted digital commerce volumes: according to Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, online shopping increased by 76% YoY this June. It is no wonder why more and more brands are entering the DTC market to streamline their communication with consumers. Established DTC brands also further diversify their reach by partnering with big retailers and supplier websites.