Google may have dropped its cookie deprecation plans, but the need for brands to future-proof their digital advertising strategies remains. For global tech and media company GumGum and its clients, that means a privacy-first approach, focused on context, attention, and innovative creative content.
Contextual technology uses the digital content signals available on a piece of content, whether that’s audio, video, images, or text, to serve ads that are aligned with what is currently being viewed to meet consumers in the right mindset – without their personal data. As a global leader in the space, GumGum works to solve what its chief data officer Rob Hall calls a “matching problem between consumers and brands.” It does this, he explains, by facilitating a shift from outdated, identity-centric cookie-based tracking of historical online behaviour (the “identity era”) to a more modern approach (the “mindset era”).
The identity era largely ignored the notion of congruence between an ad and when and where it was served, Hall explains. The mindset era, on the other hand, is based on reaching consumers when they are in the right frame of mind, so they are more responsive to the ads and more likely to act on them. In turn, this contributes to can contribute to additional brand outcomes and KPIS, like ROAS for example and, ultimately, a better ad experience for consumers and publishers alike.
While the ad tech company has been focused on contextual tactics and consumer mindset for years, it recently unified its efforts in the space. In October 2024, it launched the GumGum Platform, a flagship solution combining its three main product lines: GumGum Contextual, GumGum Attention, and GumGum Creative, which can be used separately or as a combined approach.
GumGum Contextual uses AI to detect contextual signals, ensuring ads are relevant and suit the content viewed, aligning with brand values. GumGum Attention builds on that by identifying which contextual categories and specific ads garner user attention (when, where, and how long), optimizing the results and linking them to tangible brand outcomes.
Both products inform ad strategy, but the platform can also use the data and insight to develop creative with GumGum Creative, a suite of solutions for display, video, and CTV ad formats fueled by Contextual and Attention. Supporting the new platform is GumGum’s proprietary Mindset Graph, an AI-powered data engine that combines all three of the company’s tech solutions to help advertisers find the right audiences, at scale, in real time.
Ad relevance in the identity era of advertising “is a bit questionable,” he says and is a pain point for consumers. “Just because I visited a shoe website three weeks ago doesn’t mean I’m still interested in shoes, but I’m still getting bombarded with shoe ads.”
Instead, GumGum focuses on mindset and relevance in the moment. “We have spent 14 years scanning the internet and continue to do so,” Hall says. It’s what fuels the Mindset Graph, and doesn’t just provide GumGum with an understanding of the internet, but also people and how they respond to advertising online. It’s the intersection of advertising and culture.
“The zeitgeist is constantly changing, things that seem unrelated start to be connected like the fashion movement towards sustainability, or cryptocurrency and the art world coming together via NFTs. Our Mindset Graph helps brands understand these changing relationships and tap into culture which is much more effective than traditional approaches to contextual” says Hall
This innovative approach has seen the company steadily build its presence in Canada since opening in 2018, achieving double-digit growth year-over-year. It currently has a team of 13 supporting its Canadian office and is looking to expand in 2025.
Cassidy Thedorf, GumGum’s vice president of sales in Canada, says that because audiences in Canada are smaller than in markets like the US, the Mindset Graph’s ability to tap into trends and cultural moments makes it easier for Canadian brands to identify and capitalize on contextual opportunities.
Hall calls out GumGum’s work with Dominos UK as an example. Combining context and attention, GumGum was able to determine that the top-performing categories weren’t what the brand traditionally expected. Three new categories were identified, but further intelligence highlighted health and fitness as an optimization opportunity that may have been missed with a more standard contextual approach.
The result: over 89 days of additional attention uplift (with one of the ad units garnering 2,143 hours more than a non-optimized activation), 40% increase in click-through-rate, and 398% return on ad spend.
Ultimately, Hall says, the GumGum Platform is about being more competitive in a very noisy space. “Brands come to you and say they want to run targeted keywords. We’ll say, yes, we get it, but so are your competitors. The Mindset Graph gives us access to insights brands don’t even know about. It’s a data-driven way to help a brand find non-obvious matches, increase their reach, find new category buyers, all without having to compete for old [keywords], and likely irrelevant inventory.”
It’s a layer of intelligence that solves problems for brands. “What and where are the non-obvious places to advertise? Where should their ads be that they’re not? How do we give them the peace of mind that they are spending every ad dollar in the best way possible? That’s what the GumGum Platform provides.”
For more information on working with GumGum please reach out to ideas@gumgum.com
To learn more about sponsored content opportunities with strategy contact associate publisher Neil Ewen at newen@brunico.com
