4 Ps
PII, Push, in-Place, and Payments are the 4 Ps which are at the heart of the E3 Ads.
PII: Personally Identifiable Information refers to any information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Examples of direct identifiers include names, passport numbers, mobile numbers, and email addresses. Indirect identifiers may require more data to identify an individual. Examples include date of birth, place of birth, cookies, IP addresses, and mobile device IDs. In the E3 context, the email address to whom the Action Ad is directed is known. The ad is being shown on a brand’s owned channel where the recipient has an opt-in. PII info can be highly valuable given that the adtech industry is moving in the opposite direction of hiding PII info when it comes to ads.
Push: Almost all digital ads we see today are shown on “pull” channels – where users have to do an explicit action (do a search, request a web page, open an app) before an ad can be served. Email is part of a category of push channels where the brand initiates the messaging. What recipients need to do is to engage with the message for the ad to be viewed.
in-Place: Another differentiating factor with E3 Ads is that every action can be done in the email itself. For a brand, this is extremely important because the recipient is not leaving the email (and therefore unlikely to return in the same session). The response mechanism is tied to the ad and part of the Ad AMPlet. Be it a form, an email subscription acceptance, or an “Add to Cart – all of it can be actioned in the email itself. This is a novelty – almost every ad on the Internet that we see today involves a clickthrough to the advertiser’s website. While this can be done with email ads also, the aim is to imagine a new format – a “blue ocean” which is an uncontested marketspace.
Payments: In-place, one-click/tap payments can be a gamechanger – the way Amazon has done for shopping. If a recipient has a wallet (and therefore a cash balance) with either the advertiser, publisher, or ESP, small payments can be made in an instant. The PII (email address) is already known, and therefore so is the shipping address in the case of a physical product. This enables frictionless purchase, which can power a whole new category of ads.
The thinking behind E3 Ads is to create new formats and experiences which delight consumers. The best ads are those where the readers/viewers don’t think of them as ads but as content that is of value to them. This is what we will discuss next.
