Working with technology in the marketing and media industries is non-negotiable.
The continuing development, updates, and changes – such as the phasing out of cookies, will drive the future of those industries.
Masahiro Ueno, Outbrain’s managing director for Japan and APAC, was in Sydney last month for Advertising Week APAC, featuring in a panel discussion about the tech-fuelled future of media.
Ueno spoke to Mediaweek about the tech-fuelled future of media, the key to improving trust in new technologies and advancements, and Outbrain’s latest developments.
Ueno joined Outbrain in 2020. The web recommendation platform recently expanded to include the APAC region – Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, mainland China and India.
Ueno previously held positions at Yahoo Search Marketing, Criteo and from 2016 to 2018, was the president of Buzzfeed Japan.
Outbrain and tech fuelled future of media
On stage at the Advertising Week APAC in Sydney, he was joined by moderator Clear Hayes Consulting’s Alex Hayes, CMC Capital Markets’ Liam Loan-Hack, New Corp Australia’s Pippa Leary and Crawford Media Consulting’s Hal Crawford.
On the panel, he said: “We covered interesting topics such as how AI could help or diminish journalism, what kind of technology is interesting for each of us and about trust in information and authority. It was a full house, and I received comments that it was a very good and interesting session.”
Ueno noted that while many things stood out from the session, samples of posters and images that an AI can create, as shown by Crawford, had audiences particularly curious. He shared that he heard some attendees questioning whether they would still have jobs if this technology is further developed.
“Talking about trust in information was another topic that made people think about because if AI can write a pretty good story just by being feed part of the information, people will be challenged to know if it’s real news,” he said.
“We at Outbrain, in the last few years, have given back billions of dollars to professional journalists and media. We believe in helping professional journalists and funding them to do a better job. There’s a lot of research out there, but still, articles and information on new sites in the open new web are more trusted than articles on the social web,” he added.
Improving trust in technologies and advancements
Ueno noted that native advertising and contextual targeting would continue to be considered the least ad type as it doesn’t interfere, unlike display and other formats.
“Robust and accurate information will always win trust. I think advertisers and marketers will need to think more deeply about where their ads and brands appear online.
“Being smart about optimising messaging to reflect where customers are in the purchasing journey – from the upper to lower funnel – the same message is not recommended,” he said.
“Different kinds of creatives need different formats. Although it takes extra effort, it’s always important to get the job done,” he added.
New developments and what’s ahead for Outbrain
Ueno shared that Outbrain has been working on new formats, Clip and Spotlight Ads.
“Clip is a larger, richer, and more impactful native format that enables brands to have more impactful brand experiences. A story ad like spotlight where marketers leverage stories on platforms like Instagram can use the same creative specifications across Outbrain’s sites,” he explained.
Ueno also noted that they have created the Outbrain Creative Studio for big brands they have worked with over the years. He said: “We can help them do a better job on using these new formats in the native ad space.”
“Better placements versus our widget placements at the end of the article are a different experience. We want to help brands specialise in making sure that their KPIs are met,” he added.
Looking ahead, Ueno said that Outbrain is building for the future and pushing innovation harder than ever. “We’ve always been concentrating on that, and we’ve generated more than $4 billion for publishers in the past few years.
“We know what we’re good at, and we’re sticking to that,” he concluded.
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Top image: Masahiro Ueno