Thanks to its Brut Audience Network offering launched two years ago, Brut, the leading digital platform for short news videos, provides advertisers with the opportunity to precisely target its audiences across a diverse ecosystem. We interviewed Vivien Garros, Head of Business, and Jean Chabbert, Audience Manager, about the project led by Brut and their use of Adloox.

1. Can you tell us more about your roles at Brut?

Two years ago, Vivien joined Brut to participate in the commercial deployment of the media unit. As a former Sales & Partnership Director at Jellyfish, a renowned digital marketing agency, he was drawn to the ambitious project led by Brut: “The goal was to target all of Brut's audiences in an extremely personalized way, providing a very high granularity for qualified audiences. This granularity takes various forms, such as technical criteria like the viewing time of our videos, but especially affinity criteria related to all the topics covered by the media's editorial line (environmental issues, defense of minorities, CSR, sports, culture, etc.). Thanks to the tagging system implemented on our social media videos, we are able to go very far in diversifying the targeting we offer.”

Quickly, the project materialized, initially on the social media front. Jean had joined the project a few weeks earlier to strengthen audience construction processes, following an extensive tenure at We Are Social, a leading agency in social media advertising in France.

2. Can you describe your organization and business objectives for the coming months and beyond?

"We co-built with Jean a primarily social team at the foundation, a foundation that works very well thanks to Brut's social DNA" explains Vivien. Positive results were quickly apparent, fueling their desire to go even further: "We soon understood the interest in expanding to cover other ecosystems, such as display and video through programmatic buying. Today, we collaborate with companies from the CAC 40 (The CAC40 is the benchmark French stock market index), large international groups, startups, and associations." The unique granularity offered through the immense impact of the Brut ecosystem enables the deployment of highly sophisticated strategies. "We have very interesting use cases with advertisers focusing on performance while leveraging our visibility to ensure great success in pure branding campaigns. We also work on mid-funnel logic, performance-based, as well as with institutional advertisers with annual contracts. It's very diverse."

Regarding the deployment of programmatic display campaigns, as is often the case, it requires an educational approach: "It's sometimes more challenging with advertisers without a programmatic appetite, especially those seeking performance on social media. It's our responsibility to explain the importance of new open web formats, a pool of audiences deploying inventories that are now cleaner," explains Vivien. "We can see that the industry has evolved in this area: it's becoming easier to do direct deals, easier to integrate third-party measurement and optimization, and we can push performance campaigns on long-tail and open auction, adapting our approach based on the context and the client's specific objectives."

Jean Chabbert adds, "In fact, programmatic is an extension of what we do on social media. And that's what we explain. Just a few years ago, clients were skeptical. Today, the landscape is healthier, with more visibility on data and results, better environments, and improved performance tracking. This allows us to work on much broader coverage, which is well-received."

Learn more about Brut's audiences →

‍3. Attention is becoming a key KPI due to the upcoming deprecation of third-party cookies. What is your stance on this issue?

"The topic of attention is becoming increasingly prominent. Up to now, we had KPIs for tracking, brand safety, and the quality of served impressions, in short, indicators that can provide insights into the level of attention. Some make sense, others less so," explains Vivien, who believes that MRC standards already provide significant assistance but acknowledges that there are still biases to address: "It's good to know that impressions are visible, but we also need to add other criteria to go further. Indeed, a reliable measure of attention would greatly aid performance measurement."

Regarding innovative methods of attention measurement such as eye tracking, Vivien states, "I think it enriches the measurement, but it will never replace established standards that work and are widely adopted by the industry. We will closely monitor the adoption by historical players, especially the Big 6*, or Tier 1 advertisers, and the resources allocated to these new tools,".

*The Big 6 refers to the six largest media buying agencies: WPP, Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe, Dentsu, Interpublic, and Havas.

Learn more about attention measurement →

4. Brut has a socially conscious positioning. How does this impact your strategy, value proposition, and goals?

"Brut is a certified B Corp company, with very ambitious guidelines. We are extremely vigilant about the clients we work with to ensure they are compliant with the new environmental standards" explains Vivien. Brut strives to instill a certain dynamic with its clients. In the digital advertising sector, carbon measurement issues, aimed at understanding the environmental impacts of online advertising, are gaining increasing importance. How does Brut address this? "The market is not at the same level on this issue, where agencies have taken it head-on, notably due to business and image concerns. The hype is measured on the advertiser side, although we sense a momentum building over the past few months. On our part, we are fully capable of positioning ourselves on all these CSR issues," specifies Vivien.

Measurement plays a crucial role in ensuring effective advertising distribution, combining intelligent auction management that avoids unprofitable broadcasts with robust brand safety criteria. "Our priority today is measurement transparency, an imperative for both our clients and us," adds Jean. "This principle applies to all our distribution channels, which are expanding. We have campaigns in testing for DOOH, CTV, media syndication, etc. We are open to any opportunity that may be of interest to the client, and everything will be tested in the media plan, following the principles mentioned earlier."

Learn more about Brut. Audience Network →

5. You use Adloox for measurement. Can you explain the factors influencing your choice and how you use the product?

"The choice of Adloox was greatly influenced by the significant value it brings to the advisory aspect. From the beginning, we encountered a team with a strong determination to advance our team's methods, understanding of guidelines, and the offer of organizing workshops, etc. This is something we haven't seen with other ad verification providers in pre-sales," explains Vivien. "The platform is simple and agile, the tracking technology meets our expectations, and, in addition, with Adloox, we have a French and European dimension, making it even more relevant for us to partner with them. The ability to have an agnostic third-party measurer that reassures advertisers, capable of fitting into different types of campaigns, highlighting the right KPIs and addressing the right issues, is crucial for ensuring effective operational control."

The Adloox platform's main objective is to assist agencies in substantiating their client support and supporting their actions and recommendations. Jean concludes, "As a publisher, working with a measurer on the traffic side is equally indispensable. In summary, we were eager to find a partner who resembles us, who can match with our DNA: transparency and responsibility."