Effective Mobile Advertising Pivots on Blockchain, AI/ML and Anti-Fatigue Technologies

By Sudipto Ghosh On Jun 5, 2018

Effective Mobile Advertising Pivots on Blockchain, AI/ML and Anti-Fatigue Technologies

S4M Is Planning to Reinforce Mobile Advertising Technology with a More Powerful System for Campaign Management and Cost Optimization

Last month, S4M scooped $12 million Series B funding to put an end to the big-divide in offline and online advertising. Currently, S4M brands their technology as ‘Shopper Marketing Made Easy’. S4M, as a global mobile advertising technology provider, connects brands to consumers by bridging the gap between digital advertising and the real-world. To prepare for this martech funding, S4M too significant steps. We spoke to S4M’s Americas CEO, Stan Coignard.

How did you prepare for this funding round? What made your investors believe in you and your adtech and martech product?

To prepare our fund-raising for this series B, we had a team of senior advisors specialized in the adtech and martech industry.

We are the first platform to let advertisers optimize their media spend in real-time based on what really matters, like visits to stores. We have high ambitions to become the leading actor worldwide with this unique vision. This is one of the many aspects that set us and our technology apart in a very crowded and competitive ecosystem.

Of course, our investors have seen our impressive growth since the very beginning and this Series B is a sign that they continue to put their faith in our vision.

How did your new product launch- Fusio by S4M, empower you to scoop this funding?

Well, as mentioned before, we are the first in the market with this product offering for marketers worldwide. Our product leverages AI to optimize media spend in real-time based on foot traffic into physical stores to generate incremental visits for advertisers.

Would you attribute a part of your funding success to the recent MRC accreditation?

I think providing our clients with certified metrics, data security and data ownership should be a given. Every vendor should go through it to continue maturing our market from being a wild west. With the MRC accreditation, risks of fraud are limited: MRC guidelines are very strict to filter out non-visible impressions and non-human traffic to safeguard advertiser’s media investments.

Thanks to that S4M can also guarantee 100% of the users connected to selected applications or mobile sites are the intended consumers of the advertisers of the brand or product.

Which technologies are you planning to further invest?

Previously, we invested in a globally distributed ledger system with modularity at its core.

Now, we plan to reinforce this technology from previous learnings to build a more powerful system for campaign management and cost optimization. Alongside this, we have a separate blockchain initiative for a breakthrough anti-fraud system in the pipeline. We also plan to use deep-learning for image performance classification and an “anti-fatigue” system.

Where do AI/ML and attribution data science fit into your product roadmap?

Both AI and machine learning are at the core of our technology, by design since the very beginning. We wanted to build a full stack technology from a user exposure to an incremental visit online and in stores with a frictionless approach in order to use AI and ML throughout the exposure funnel.

Our past research was on geographic models, with classification & co and our current research is on mixing physical and virtual data (like maps of a city, travel time to reach a specific store, crown movements etc). We have also been investing in anonymization techniques for improving the accuracy of anonymous data.

How would you extend the benefits of your funding round to your customers and partners in the community?

We continue to be committed to delivering true returns on investments on ad spend for every marketing dollar. Finally, with us, marketers can be sure that even their branding dollars can be attributed to their ultimate business objectives. Another important benefit for our clients is data ownership and transparency on their campaign metrics.

Which new markets and geographies are you planning to expand?

We will reinforce our team in the US to benefit from the traction that we have built up in the past few years and focus on accelerating our growth. This year, we have already tripled our US teams and will continue this momentum in the coming weeks.

How do you see the US market for Mobile Advertising and Programmatic evolving with new-age technologies?

The US is the biggest and most mature market in our industry today. Measurement solutions are present to help brands optimizing their media spend. The coming months will be focused on how to leverage accurate location data to get the most out of the mobile marketing approach and reinforcing the fight against fraud.

Thank you, Stan, for chatting with us!