Navigating the Changing Landscape of Digital Marketing: Plans and Initiatives of the Collective for Digital Marketing Players [CPA]

You have both just been appointed president of the Collective for digital marketing players [CPA], with many changes to come. What do you want to do ?

Emanuel Brunet. The CPA is growing. We opted for a co-presidency, and a board of directors of 20 people, with new energy and new motivations. The goal is to take the collective out of its perimeter gradually. From affiliation, we are moving towards something broader, a broader spectrum of performance marketing professions. There are many very specialized unions, but we also wanted to express ourselves to people who have the same prism for different professions. For example, over the past two years, we have had more agencies that have joined us, such as Les Echos – Le Parisien. They do not do affiliation, but face hybrid issues and are a stronger voice at home. Between content for commerce, affiliation, display or e-mail, we realize that there remains an overall pattern that requires exchanges. And it’s an offer that we couldn’t find anywhere. We must tackle more technical, more specific issues in order to agree on performance measurement, targeting, optimization of ratios, etc.

Alban Peltier. Today, technology is clearly at the heart of business. Especially for the media where the control part is out of breath. And other hitherto hidden entities are becoming sources of growth. The content commerce part, for example, is a key topic. The goal is not to set up steamrollers but to see how to manage traffic, content, audience and monetization. CPM optimization [coût pour mille] becomes more and more complex, you have to rack your brains more and more. This requires more technicality, to put performance at the heart. We see it in the digital market, all the levers of performance are growing.

But is this development not new?

A.P. We saw it in the luxury sector three or four years ago. The discourse has changed. We have seen cases of branding campaigns that are more detailed, more technical, with more consideration of performance. And it is our role to accompany these changes in other sectors, it is the DNA of the CPA to show pedagogy with the actors.

So what exactly do you plan to do?

E.B. First, we are going to move from a charter logic to a labeling logic. This is something that we have started to implement on discount vouchers, in partnership with Euphonie. The law remains very superficial, so we go deeper into the details: what about buying traffic, are the codes still valid when they are online? Our role is not to be repressive, but to distinguish companies that do things well. Thus a company can be labeled and valued on the market.

A.P. And we will extend this to other topics. On performance, for example, it is a very technical, complicated concept, and many results can be biased, because in reality, we only measure what we want to measure. On search engine advertising [SEA, référencement payant] it’s the same, what is the real reach for the brand? We want to promote all good practices and enlighten advertisers, with education. We had already worked on fraud a few years ago to explain things. The goal will be to reward players who rely on the quality of traffic and the quality of brand promotion.

Do you want to contact advertisers?

E.B. Yes, because we must not forget the essential: it is the advertiser who pays us, and it is for him that we work. It is he who is at the start and at the end of the chain. It is often said that they give a lot to the Gafa, but it’s complicated if you don’t value the ecosystem. So we want to bring together French or European players, and show that the ecosystem has its good points, and we are therefore committed to the good achievements of companies. We want to tell advertisers: you have enough to work with good local bosses. To do this, we are going to highlight good practices. On certain subjects, we went too far in opacity. If we want to allow advertisers to find their way around and to have confidence, we must help them. This will be the new role of the CPA: support and change.

A.P. We have several ongoing projects in the same spirit for members by helping them to situate themselves from the point of view of their skills. We do a test to label the skills of certain employees, in the form of an exam. In the same spirit as the Label Digital Marketing School [LDMS] with other unions, which are already being deployed, where we certify schools for the quality of training, we are going to give certification to employees who will be able to attest to their skills. All this aims to develop a logic of growth, and also responds to HR issues within companies.

The market is becoming more and more complex for everyone, and especially for advertisers… Especially with the cookieless issues that are coming up, and the multiple solutions that are emerging. It’s getting hard to find it!

E.B. This is why we have another project, which aims to shed light on the expertise. We will carry out market mappings, to know who is doing what, and macroeconomic studies, to help get a broader view. Identify the roles of each company, and give keys to understanding the needs, or the different readings of the market.