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Madrid, 6 February 2023. Adwatch has relied on Telefónica Tech to increase the trust and credibility of the audience metrics of the digital marketing campaigns offered by its monitoring product. The agreement between the two companies involves integrating TrustOS, the Blockchain-based certification solution developed by Telefónica Tech, into the Adwatch tool to convert the metrics into independent, irrefutable digital evidence that can be used in court. In this way, the advertiser enjoys total control and transparency to correctly monitor campaigns and optimise their advertising expenditure. 

As a result of the agreement, both companies are promoting the creation of an independent seal of quality that guarantees the transparency of digital marketing campaign metrics to third parties. With this independent and verifiable seal, agencies, publishers and advertisers provide the metrics in real time with the same evidential capacity that they would have if they were issued by a qualified trust service provider within the framework of the European Union’s eIDAS regulation, which regulates electronic identification and trust services in electronic transactions between citizens and companies in the internal market.

The implementation of technologies, such as Blockchain, helps the industry to provide transparency and security, and to tackle notorious ad fraud. The origin of this fraud lies in the discrepancy between the contracted ad impacts and those actually served, both in terms of volume (not all contracted advertisements are offered) and the characteristics of the advertisements (altered or printed in conditions different from those contracted). 

Adwatch uses Blockchain technology in its campaign monitoring solution to guarantee, from source to destination, that the ad is not manipulated, establishing full traceability of the ad for each of the impressions launched and counting only those that correspond to the ad as delivered by the advertiser. 

Audience metrics are recorded on the blockchain and accredited in real time, allowing for active participation in the detection of potential fraud and independent monitoring of campaign effectiveness without relying on third-party reports. In addition, the metrics acquire a differential value for advertisers thanks to the evidentiary capacity of the evidence recorded through TrustOS, as they will be able to track the entire path of the ad no matter where it is being shown or how many times, get to know their audience better and be sure that their investment is guaranteed.

This service allows advertisers to increase the impact of their campaigns by 20% for the same budget and helps to reduce the carbon footprint, as the increased efficiency of advertising campaigns means that companies need to buy fewer impressions to have the same impact.

José Luis Casado, CEO of Adwatch, said: “Blockchain technology is here to stay, and only such a set of disruptive technologies are able to provide the traceability that digital advertising needs, making us a true ally of trust”.

Marta Belmonte, head of new products for digital advertising at Telefónica Tech, said: “Blockchain technology allows us to offer our clients accredited audience data from their campaigns, which will allow them to make smarter decisions about the application of their advertising budget. The integration of our TrustOS solution with Adwatch technology demonstrates how Blockchain solves real problems in business relationships, such as ad fraud, and reinforces our strategy of relying on specialised partners to deliver disruptive solutions that transform very different economic sectors, from the agri-food industry to, as in this case, digital advertising.

About Telefónica Tech

Telefónica Tech is the leading company in digital transformation. The company offers a wide range of services and integrated technological solutions for Cyber Security, Cloud, IoT, Big Data and Blockchain. For more information, please visit: https://telefonicatech.com/ 

About Adwatch

Adwatch is a Spanish startup born in 2019 dedicated to certify digital advertising based on Blockchain technology. It was born with the mission and purpose of creating and exploring solutions that contribute to enhance the transparency and sustainability of the online advertising ecosystem. 

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Through this partnership, Virtually Visiting will be able to expand its reach and offer new and exciting virtual reality experiences. Also, Lancelot will help establish B2C and B2B distribution channels, and ultimately accelerate Revenue growth.

The product speaks for itself. Our wonderful new clients have invited everyone to join the multi-talented athlete Cookie as he takes us on an epic 1,000m vertical ski descent at Alpe D’Huez, the famous French ski resort.

Go on, try it on VirtuallyVisiting.com 

A word from the team

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Virtually Visiting,” said Richard Parboo, CEO of Lancelot LDN. “Their innovative virtual reality technology is truly groundbreaking and we are excited to be able to lead the European roll out. We believe that this partnership will enable Virtually Visiting to enter the European market and bring its cutting-edge technology to a wider audience.”

Jonathan Cooper, CEO of Virtually Visiting, says “Lancelot LDN’s expertise in driving accelerated revenue growth will be invaluable as we work together to conquer Europe. We believe that this partnership will be a huge success and will help us fulfill our ambitions.”

About Virtually Visiting

Virtually Visiting was set up by a group of travel and technology experts who believe in travel and the good that it can bring to the world.

They see the planet as an ever-changing place where travel is not always accessible. So they have combined advances in technology with their passion for travel to create real tours and experiences available online to everyone, everywhere.

The result of this vision is a unique travel dedicated 360 virtual tour platform. Users can now enjoy bucket list experiences from the comfort of their own homes. Highly sought-after destinations are filmed by partners, offering a range of immersive experiences for everyone, from history to food to adventure.

Watch the video below and feel free to rotate the image in 360º!

How it works

It’s quick, easy and FREE to sign up so users can travel whenever they want, wherever they want! With the Virtual Passport, Virtually Visiting will transport users around the world. Travel from the winter wonderlands of Northern Scandinavia, to the jagged peaks of the Canadian rockies, to the bush and beaches of Australia.

The content can be viewed on desktop, smartphone, tablet or VR headset. All of the experiences are filmed in 360 video, which allows users to pan around the entire scene as if they are really there.

Immersive travel is now available to all, and Virtually Visiting is where travel begins.

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But let’s look at how we got here.

1.  The Entry Point

All media and tech companies are looking for growth, and very often that means looking at INTERNATIONAL Growth and breaking new markets.

One of the critical steps to tap into new markets is breaking into Europe.  And in Europe, the UK is the biggest and most strategic market to break, with Global CEO’s ranking it as 3rd most important country for investment, jointly with Germany, behind only US and China.  In fact, despite recent political turmoil and Brexit, business bosses are ever more bullish about UK in PwC’s 26th annual Global CEO Survey:  Only 9% selected UK as growth market in 2020, now up to 18%.

This is the first key market reality behind Lancelot LDN, which initially led to our existence:  deliver a London based headquarters to our clients

 

2.  Follow The Money

A decade ago, the global financial crisis and high unemployment rates led many Portuguese individuals and entrepreneurs to seek opportunities outside of the country’s limited economy. The small domestic market also compelled startups to focus on global expansion from the outset. However, today the situation has changed. Portugal not only boasts a thriving community of domestic tech companies, but it is also attracting foreign investment and talent in the tech sector. The government and local entrepreneurs are actively providing support and resources to foster innovation and continue this growth. Portugal has invested heavily in its economy in recent years, which has helped to spur a digital based economic revival.

Portugal has been the fastest-growing European tech hub since 2017 until the market growth was interrupted by the pandemic. But 2021 has already been the year of recovery for Portugal’s software market.

Sherlock Holmes used to say that if you want to solve a mystery, you should follow the money.  And the money clearly indicates the Portuguese Tech Boom:

• Home Heroes

  • Online luxury fashion platform Farfetch, coding software provider OutSystems and cloud-based contact centre Talkdesk where the first to put Portugal on the technology map. 
  • A new cohort of startups are coming through the ranks, with companies such as Unbabel and Uniplaces growing rapidly.  For a country of 10m people, Portugal has produced a rather impressive number of large tech businesses for its size.
  • Startups based in Lisbon are worth  €2.1 billion as of 2022 – a three-fold increase from half a decade ago.

• Investment

  • Last year, Lisbon welcomed its highest ever number of foreign investments in the software & IT industry, the sixth year of growth in this regard.
  • The city’s venture capital market has increased fourfold in volume of transactions, compared to 2017.
  • Attracting non-EU tech talent to Portugal has become easier thanks to Portugal’s Startup Visa and incentives for returning expats (50% income tax discount).
  • Foreign investors also gain from Portugal’s non-habitual tax resident regime, essentially a ten year tax break for skilled professionals living in Portugal.
  • The arrival of the incubators (Lisbon now has some 32 of these).

• Talent

  • Companies like Cloudflare, Google and others have chosen Lisbon as a base:  “Lisbon’s tech growth has been tremendous and [the city] is doing a great job of attracting talent. It has the potential to be the next great European technology ecosystem… We chose Lisbon because of its strong tech talent, quality of life, time zone and political stability,” says John Graham-Cumming, chief technology officer of Cloudflare.
  • The location and time zone of the country are advantageous for international travel. Being the closest European country to the US and Canada, it supports easy accessibility for international travel. The country has only a one-hour time difference from Central European Time and shares the same time zone as the United Kingdom, which makes it convenient for scheduling meetings and conducting business with both European and North American partners.
  • Educated and diverse tech talent at a competitive cost.
  • Portugal ranks 26th out of 63 countries in the World Talent Ranking, with a talented tech workforce of 90,000 programmers. Although this number may not be the highest in Europe, Portuguese developers have a strong technical education, excellent proficiency in English, and hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies, making them a valuable asset to any company.
  • The Global Skills Report 2021 highlights that Portuguese developers possess advanced skills in computer networking, database development, and software engineering. Additionally, according to HackerRank, Portuguese developers are among the most skilled in Java, SQL, and Python.
  • Not only do they possess top-notch technical skills and a strong educational background, but the cost to hire software developers in Portugal is also relatively low.
  • The city is attracting an increasing number of foreign residents for four consecutive years, resulting in about 90,000 new arrivals in 2019.
  • The city is known for its reputation in attracting and retaining talent and is quickly becoming a leading technology ecosystem in Europe, often referred to as “the California of Europe” or “the warm Berlin.”

• Events

  • Lisbon attracts a plethora of International events given its infrastructure, location and climate.
  • The most relevant of which is the Web Summit, the largest and most important global tech conference. The latest edition gathered roughly 80,000 attendees, including some 2,000 startups and 1,500 investors.

This is the second market trend driving Lancelot LDN’s growth;  tap into the digital ecosystem in Lisbon, extending it’s benefits to our clients.

3.  The Result

As a result of these two strategic directions we have setup headquarters in London and Lisbon, looking to service our clients across Europe.  We currently run operations from two hubs:

London

• The European HQ for Lancelot LDN
• UK Commercial and Operations Team
• Client teams

Lisbon

• The European Commercial and Operations Team
• Marketing Team

The difficulty for an incoming player is that Europe is a highly fragmented territory, despite the (mostly) common marketplace.  They will absolutely need local market experts to succeed and that is where Lancelot LDN comes in.   Our ambition is clear:  to help our clients achieve a 60% reduction in local hiring costs and expansion overheads for their European operation.

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1.  Overwhelming recruitment effort.  

You’re spending so much time recruiting, onboarding and training new sales staff… everything else is being left behind.

Exasperated by the time it takes to recruit, onboard, and train sales staff until they are fully operational and generating revenue?  And are you making decisions fast enough as to not loose talent to your competition? 

Recruitment is a massive and ongoing investment of time and resources, in roles that historically have one of the highest turnover rates in organisations.

Alongside the hardships of execution around this, there is also the opportunity cost of where Founders are focusing their efforts.  Driving recruitment is a massive distraction and time constraint which, if not managed properly, may lead to problems elsewhere in the organisation.

Focus is key, and recruiting – especially when trying to push for growth – is a distraction.

2.  Acceleration

You are market ready, looking to ramp up your revenue growth, but you simply don’t have enough (or right!) resources to drive the cadence you are looking for.  

It may be that your inhouse sales team delivers consistently in closing deals, but is not generating demand, leads or pipeline at scale.  

Or that your team (inhouse or otherwise) is being pulled into managing sold deals, rather than handing off to the Customer Success Team.

Either as a full service solution, or a complement to your existing setup, GAAS will help you accelerate at your maximum potential.

3.  New markets

You have cracked your domestic market, and growth could come from new markets rather than trying to increase market share wherever you are active.  

New geographies require local market insights at all levels, building out local pipeline, intelligence, existing network / relationships, understanding of local culture, etc.

And the speed you achieve traction in these markets, depends on the speed you can roll out your local teams.

In conclusion

There are various routes to success, and choosing the GAAS route is one of them.  But choosing GAAS must be an intentional decision on how you approach and manage your sales process, and it’s success is directly related to how active a role you play in managing performance.

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Focusing too early on Lead Generation or Sales without a well thought out and deployed Go To Market and sales strategy is brutally inefficient.  Most start-ups are grinding to get their initial sales.  Even around the €1-2mm ARR mark, more often than not sales are being made by Founders, and not ready to scale.

Most start-ups are grinding to get their initial sales.  Even around the €1-2mm ARR mark, more often than not sales are being made by Founders, unready for scale and without a clear process or methodology.  Which inevitably creates 3 problems:

1. Perpetuates not having any clarity on WHY or HOW people are making the decision to buy the product;
2. Leads to hitting a revenue wall pretty early on;
3. Ends up creating a loss in revenue once the Founders move on to problems which arise with actually delivering the sale;

This yo-yo effect understandably creates a very acute and clear pain point for Founders, who sooner or later look at outsourcing sales given the underlying value proposition:

• Specialised selling for Software / SAAS / Martech / Blockchain / etc 
• Cost Savings around outsourcing vs in house headcount
• Faster deployment and speed to revenue

Whilst these are REAL and VALID arguments for Mid Market Scale-Ups or Enterprise players, they will most certainly be insufficient for Start-ups given the rather ominous assumption that they are BUYER READY, or that they have the inbound basics are already in place (SEO, optimized sales funnels, content / thought leadership strategy, etc).

Outsourcing Lead Generation or Sales without a well thought out and deployed Go To Market and sales strategy is brutally inefficient:  time and money spent throwing extra sales resources at a problem which isn’t fixed at its core, resulting in the same problem we started out with… aggravated by the passing time.

This exact pain point is why Lancelot LDN came around:  we provide a Growth As A Service model for tech start-ups, moving them from founder-led / little market traction through to a ready to scale sales operation.  

We also understand start-up Founders are very careful with their outgoings (or they should be!), so we make a point of clarifying exactly what it is that you can expect from us, over our relationship.  This can be broken down into two key moments: 

1. One initial 12 week consultative cycle – broken into two 6 week mini cycles – to ensure you are ready to scale your sales operation.  
2. Ongoing 12 week implementation cycles, working with whatever Sales Operation Model we have built together.

That’s it.  No black box, just a very clear and transparent process to get you to where you need to be.   Implement, analyse, adjust, repeat.

Let’s apply the 5 Why’s process to why this helps start-up Founders:

• Why?  The faster you get there, the more value your company will have;
• Why?  The technology marketplace is very much valued on speed of growth, because it proves scalability;
• Why?  The same way an MVP proves you have worked back from the business results you’re trying to achieve to build a product people want, revenue growth proves you have figured out how to sell it too; 
• Why?  It’s possible to take a venture to 7 digits revenue just out of grind.  But the only way to $10m and beyond is through scalable technology;
• Why?  If you need an answer to that question, you are probably my mum trying to figure out what it is we do again (let’s call it “techy stuff”, mum!);

Objectively, we get your business ready to increase sales, given increased resources.  Reach out to see how we can help you.

Meanwhile, check out Gartner’sFuture of Sales 2025: Why B2B Sales Needs a Digital-First Approach – always food for thought!

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About Playoncontent

• Our focus is generating online video inventory that supports media editors and content generators in developing online video audiences and offering it to the advertising market.
• Our mission is to provide a powerful technology simplifying video publishing, improving delivery & control, and increase the monetization and profitability of the media editors.
• Full stack video technology that gives access to hundreds of video content in an advanced CMS, running in our own advanced and intelligence video players

“The decision to expand into London will help POC expand market reach while offering sales pipeline growth across publishers and advertisers,” said Toby Bax, Lancelot Media London Founder.  “It is a natural continuation in our global strategy for growth and support in areas that are helping leading martech companies expansion globally.” 

“PlayONContent’s business model and tech stack, with the support and expertise of Lancelot Media, will make a difference for publishers in the UK Market” said Jordi Sabat, Founder and CEO.  “There is a long way for video in front of us yet, and making it easier and more profitable without additional efforts or investments will be the key”.

You can find out more by getting in touch with us at Lancelot Media London or by clicking here https://www.playoncontent.com/request-demo and one of our team will get back to you asap.

More about Lancelot Media London

Lancelot Media London enables martech companies to expand into Europe, and achieve faster traction, revenue and localized growth.  Tailored at clients in expansion stages 3-5 of their lifecycle, Lancelot Media delivers experienced martech people and local traction, which greatly reduces risk.

More about PlayONContent

Founded in Spain in 2019, PlayONContent combines a powerful video tech stack with advertisement knowledge to allow publishers to easily increase monetisation thru audiovisual contents. Currently present in over 10 countries and supporting video and audio  strategy for over 150 publishing houses worldwide.

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Lancelot Media London, a leading media consultancy enabling martech companies to expand into Europe and achieve faster traction, revenue and localized growth, today announced the opening of its new office in Lisbon, Portugal.  This expansion positions Lancelot Media London as the foremost gateway for Martech companies looking to enter, or expand within the European market.

“The decision to expand into Europe, and to solidify the offering of two services which can significantly impact our Go To Market effectiveness on behalf of our clients,” said Richard Parboo, Lancelot Media London CEO.  “It is a natural continuation in our strategy for growth and support into areas that are leading martech expansion globally.” 

Since launching in 2014, Lancelot Media London has worked with over 30 martech clients looking to enter the European marketplace.  Initially focused purely on becoming a media/data agency, providing senior resources, pipeline & architecture, Lancelot Media London’s offering has developed into a strategic partner enabling clients to build commercial traction in one of the world’s largest digital advertising economies, faster and with considerably less risk.

For more information, visit www.lancelotmedialondon.com

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The latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report shows UK ad spend is predicted to fall 15.6% year-on-year in 2020 to £21.4bn – a slight improvement on the 16.7% drop forecast in April. This is linked to recent measures announced by the Government to increase consumer spending. New figures for Q1 2020 show total ad spend rose 2.9% year-on-year to reach £6.4bn, contrasting with the 39.0% decline estimated for Q2 when COVID-19 took hold.

Total 2021 ad spend is forecast to be 16.6% higher than 2020 – this assumes a successful vaccine will be in place and ‘new normal’ has been established. Yet total 2021 ad spend is still predicted to be lower than the 2019 figure of £25.3bn, meaning pre-COVID-19 levels of ad spend will not be seen until 2022 at the earliest.

The data shows online and digital formats performing strongly in Q1 2020, search and online display grew by 10.1% and 11.8% respectively. VOD achieved growth of 11.3% and online national news brands saw a rise of 14.2% – yet a fall is envisaged for Q2, accounting for the impact of lockdown and the pandemic. The biggest falls predicted are understandably for cinema and out of home, but both media are forecast to record some of the largest gains in 2021 (see table below).

These figures reinforce the Advertising Association’s call for a tax incentive scheme: to stimulate advertising investment, encourage advertisers and SMEs to invest in advertising as a stimulus for the wider economy.

Commenting on the report, Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive at the Advertising Association said: “Today’s figures show that the outlook for UK advertising remains fragile, which demonstrates the need for the Government to continue working with the advertising industry to boost confidence in the economy and among consumers. This can be achieved through initiatives such as our tax credits scheme for advertising, but also by ensuring we have a regulatory environment that is open and fair, to ensure businesses have the confidence to invest. This means avoiding increased rules and regulations, such as those proposed for HFSS advertising, that will weigh on the much-anticipated recovery we hope to see next year.”

Philippa Brown, Chair of the Advertising Association & CEO of PHD added:

“These figures point to light at the end of the tunnel, which will come as a welcome relief to companies and colleagues across the advertising and media industries. While the focus remains on returning our economy to growth, it is also important we keep focus on the social recovery too and what this means for our industry around such issues as climate change and building a truly inclusive workforce, areas central to the Advertising Association’s work over the coming months.”

Written by IAB, originally posted on IABUK.com

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VL helps brands by creating lifelike, immersive virtual worlds with powerful 3D technology, extreme detailing and authentic storytelling, for virtual reality, gaming consoles or mobile devices. Check out our use case gallery: https://lnkd.in/dz-5zat

Get in touch for a demo we’d love to hear about your requirements: https://virtuality.live/

#immersiveexperiences #welcometoLondon #3Dstorytelling

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