The Story Behind: Social Canvas

When Kevin Durant left the Golden State Warriors something incredible happened. And no - it wasn’t that the Nets were suddenly a good team. It was that he didn’t immediately tell management, his teammates, or the press about his departure. The first thing he did was post about it on Instagram. Then sports publications scrambled to embed his post in their articles.

These social posts, or “embeds,” now appear in articles across sports, politics, entertainment, lifestyle —virtually every inch of the media landscape. And it’s not just Tweets stealing the spotlight. Music websites embed Spotify and Soundcloud songs. Entertainment sites embed Instagram posts and YouTube Videos. News sites embed Reddit and Facebook posts. More than 38% of all article pages now include at least one embed. 

I saw the embed trend as an opportunity, and started Rhombus in 2018 to help publishers monetize around these eye-catching posts and to help advertisers take advantage of the high-visibility they deliver. And it worked.

As part of Kargo, Rhombus is rebranding as “Social Canvas.” Here’s how it works:

Social Canvas provides brands the opportunity to surround contextually relevant social posts with their messaging. The meta-data inside of social posts (@account names, #hashtags, keywords, emojis, etc) can all be used to execute a one-of-a kind contextual targeting strategy programmatically and through direct-sold activations.

Want to surround social posts that are about summer? You got it. Want to surround social posts that mention “Father’s Day?” Absolutely. Want to surround social posts only from certain NFL athletes? Done deal.  

The possibilities are limitless. The entire Kargo team and I can’t wait to work with you on your first Social Canvas campaign.

POWERFUL CONTEXTUAL TARGETING:

With the death of the cookie, every marketer is looking for a new targeting strategy. Social Canvas’ targeting is 100% contextual. You can target based on @accounts, #hashtags, keywords, and categories, including the biggest celebrities, influencers, and tentpole events that would be otherwise unattainable.

SAFER SOCIAL:

Users are increasingly concerned with how social platforms are using their personal data. Social embeds are the perfect alternative. They are hand-picked by editors and placed inside premium publisher content. They don’t include comments. Lastly, Social Canvas’ proprietary brand safety technology automatically detects and blocks non brand-safe embeds.

STRONGER PERFORMANCE:

Most of us do it—we scroll first to the social embed in an article for a quick take on the story, before we decide to read the whole thing. For Social Canvas, this means CTRs that are 5% higher and viewability that’s 36% higher than industry standards. 

EXCLUSIVITY:

With Social Canvas, Kargo is the only company that has access to the inventory around social embeds.

Make Social Canvas a part of your next campaign! GET STARTED

Read the press release as seen on AdExchanger.