A Very Outbrain Dmexco: The Chats, Partnership, and Orange Shoes

We thought last year was an exciting year for Outbrain at Dmexco 2015, but little did we know, it could only get better from there.

In this whirlwind recap from a whirlwind of an event, we’ll bring you through some of the exciting conversations taking place in and around the expo center, the memorable discussions and panels we participated in, and a partnership that’s going to allow B2B marketers to take their content marketing and account-based marketing to the next level.

A big thanks to the team at storytile and their amazing live-blogging technology for capturing our experience there…

The Outbrain Troops Rally Behind a Mission

Flown in from all over the world, we set up shop and were determined to help educate those visiting our booth about the value of content discovery through meaningful dialogue and via a variety of informational resources about how to, “Power The Best Content Experiences” and “Turn Brand Stories into Brand Results.”

Our CEO, Yaron Galai, made sure to initiate dialogue about how the content marketing space is evolving, the changes in audience consumption of publisher content and Outbrain’s position at the forefront of the chatbot revolution:

Growing the Outbrain Experience

During our time at Dmexco, an important announcement took place, because what better way to celebrate strategic growth than with the company of colleagues, friends, business partners, and beers!

Hint, it’s something B2B marketers can get pumped about, a partnership with Bombora, the leading provider of B2B demographic and intent data

What does it all mean?

Stronger B2B targeting capabilities through the pairing of Bombora’s intent data and the Outbrain interest graph.

Listen to Erik Matlick, CEO of Bombora, talk more about how this is going to make an invaluable impact on Outbrain Amplify users:

On the Topic of Targeting

Head of Sales for Outbrain DACH, Daniel Holm, lead an interesting and poignant seminar titled, “Targeting And Content Distribution – Love At Second Glance?

During, he touches on the rise of adblocker rates and increasing banner blindness among small smartphone screens, making it harder than ever for marketers to deliver their messages.

So push became pull as display targeting became powerless to content:

“Content marketing has little to do with the classic campaign thinking. It is no longer primarily a matter of talking about the product to praise it. Rather, good content marketing fetches its customers, talks about their needs, and actually offers value… It’s about relevant content.” — Daniel Holm

But then he shared this slide…

How can display targeting and content marketing come together?

According to Daniel, through an intelligent combination of targeted content creation, data-driven content distribution and retargeting.

Sharing examples from Volkswagen, who scored excellent feedback from the press for its new Tiguan, he walked through how positive content can be used to achieve brand awareness, affinity, and results through amplification across the Outbrain network and via smart retargeting on platforms such as Facebook.

And Then There Were Chatbots

In a highly anticipated panel presentation, Matt Crenshaw, Outbrain’s VP of Product Marketing, took the stage alongside Max Koziolek, Co-Founder of Spectrm, to discuss “How To Manage A Million Conversations At Once.”

With the popularity of messenger apps, we already know this is where publishers, brands, and retailers should be creating meaningful content experiences with audiences online, which is why Matt Crenshaw gave the Dmexco crowd a behind the scenes look at the Outbrain for Chat interface on Facebook Messenger.

storytile caught up with Matt before speaking at the Experience Hall and here’s what he had to say about what chatbots are capable of, the future of chatbots, and some advice for companies interested in the technology.

Want to learn more about what a content experience in a messenger app would function like? Here’s some additional footage we captured during the talk, showcasing the evolution of this new form of marketing dialogue:

Happening now at #dmexco: @mcrenshawATL presenting the @CNN & Outbrain #chatbot within the @facebook messenger app pic.twitter.com/iqSC04Rm86

— Outbrain (@Outbrain) September 15, 2016

That’s All Folks

After two days of meetings, lectures, panels and spontaneous encounters at Europe’s largest digital marketing exhibition (a record 50,700 attendees this year!), we bid adieu to Dmexco and all of the amazing people we met throughout the week.

Thank you to everyone who made our time there so special. We’re excited about the new opportunities on the horizon and hope you’ll keep in touch with us as we continue to grow and innovate through the end of the year and beyond.