Sponsored content to amend future advertising challenges for buyers, sellers

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No longer a novelty, digital advertising is expected to comprise more than 50 percent of buyers’ total marketing budgets in two years, according to a new report by Accenture.

Digital and mobile advertising spend now equals that of television and far surpasses print, and many respondents for Accenture’s “The Future of Advertising” report feel that soon digital will account for 60 percent of total budgets. While digital and mobile has revolutionized the advertising industry, the transition still presents buyers and sellers with numerous challenges.

“Digital advertising opens a whole new world to reach and engage consumers,” said Gavin Mann, global broadcast industry lead at Accenture. “Analytics are a big part of this.

“Marketers need to create integrated data sources and leverage the appropriate analytics tools and digital skills to make it work,” he said. “This is especially relevant for marketers in the luxury space who are dealing with a niche, specialized audience who know what they like and are not easily swayed.

“Tailored content shaped by analytics is the best way to reach them.”

For The Future of Advertising report, Accenture spoke with executives at ad buyers who represent major brands and ad sellers including publishers, agencies and social/Internet companies in the United States.

Going mainstream
Despite marketers’ increasing focus on digital, Accenture’s research suggests that increased ROI for ad buyers and higher revenues for ad sellers remain elusive.

Digital has been embraced by marketers due to the lure of greater returns. Indeed, buyers are attracted to digital marketing more so than traditional buys because of the amount of data that is increasingly available.

With data that can help to effectively target a particular demographic there is also a greater return on ad investments. Overall, ad sellers feel that data usage maximizes inventory to result in greater revenues.

Marketers’ desire for greater ROI and revenue has resulted in an increased use of programmatic. Today, programmatic is only used at a rate of 17 percent for inventory, but respondents suggest that in two years this will double to 35 percent.

Accenture found in its research that the buying and selling sides of marketing are having difficulties achieving digital advertising objectives because of a “disparate, patchwork technology environment.” Teams on both sides have not fully integrated data management platforms (DMP) or demand-side platforms (DSP)/supply-side platforms (SSP) with other systems and tools.

This disparate environment has thus made it difficult to improve campaign performance and judge ad conversion rates.

A consumer using a smartphone 

Data has also presented challenges for both buyers and sellers, as they tap into nine data sources to better understand consumer preferences and behavior that can be used to segment audiences. These sources include site analytics, measurement companies, CRM, DMPs, social data, mobile data, consumer surveys, onsite search and subscription data.

Understandably, with too many sources marketers are prevented from effectively using the data at hand, as it also jeopardizes the data quality.

Sellers told Accenture that they are using audience data, third-party data, order data and ad server data, but the data cannot be used effectively because it is too difficult to aggregate and ensure quality due to a lack of analytical tools. For sellers, ROI is also difficult because the source data does not paint a single view of consumers.

Overall, the three primary challenges of consumer data usage for better audience targeting is siloed organization at 63 percent, data aggregation at 47 percent and data quality at 44 percent.

Consumers viewing content on a tablet 

Going forward there will be other challenges faced by marketers. Executive respondents shared that they expect more of a focus on personalized, targeted and valuable ads. This will prove especially true as ad blocking becomes more of a reality.

Essentially, consumers are resulting and embracing ad blocking as a way to tell marketers that they are tired of “the barrage of unnecessary, unwanted, irrelevant messages.” Struggles will present themselves for companies not yet equipped to personalize and target messaging.

“Ad blockers are a relatively new, but growing threat to the digital advertising industry,” Mr. Mann said. “Consumers are increasingly willing to pay for blockers because too many ads are poorly targeted.

“The overabundance of heavy, irrelevant content  combined with the technological ease of using an ad blocker has the potential to seriously cut into the revenue models of Web sites and advertisers,” he said.

Increasingly, consumers expect targeted messages that have a degree of value for their preferences and behavior. Going forward, offers should be more holistic rather than relying on standard information such as age and gender.

Content-based marketing is likely to be a solution as the format works in an advertiser’s message into compelling content that not only gets the brand’s message across, but also serves a consumer’s need.

For example, brokerage firm Sotheby’s International Realty is providing affluent readers of Elle Décor access to high-end real estate content in a native advertising push.

Led by media agency SwellShark, Sotheby’s launched its partnership with Elle Décor on the Hearst-owned title’s Web site on March 1. The creative campaign uses Elle Décor as a starting point and includes innovative content elements that will then be expanded across Hearst Magazines Digital Media portfolio for broader reach (see story).

Executives also expressed that the way in which ads are delivered also needs to evolve. To do so, the respondents suggested taking an omnichannel, screen-agnostic approach.

Changes
Advertising and consumer preferences and expectations are changing and with that technology is also evolving. These changes will include data and analytics, systems integration and salesforce automation.

Accenture found that both buyers and sellers need a 360-degree view of target consumers to improve ROI and increase revenues. Planning a centralized database to manage audience data will help buyers and sellers get the most out of the data available to them.

This is directly linked with better integration practices that include sales force automation solutions across the ad sales process. In turn, this will make the sales team more efficient through a single solution rather than a fragmented approach across tools.

Together this creates a closed-loop system that benefits from an up-to-date, accurate database that holds “the truth” and can be used to make more informed decisions for ad placements based on the greatest returns.

For example, Barneys has placed iBeacons throughout its new Chelsea store to create a personalized experience as well, available for those who opt-in. Using the technology, the retailer can send personalized recommendations sourced from The Window, Barneys’ editorial site, to consumers’ smartphones.

Internally, Barneys’ use of Relevance Cloud is beneficial to its sales team, which can use the platform to connect online and offline behavior and preferences. Access to this data can help sales associates better assist Barneys’ in-store consumers with the retailer’s clienteling application (see story).

Marketers must update their practices to effectively compete with today’s technologies.

“Its impact will be muted if digital advertising organizations change their practices and tailor content to the user experience,” Mr. Mann said. “It’s futile to focus all efforts on trying to outsmart ever-evolving ad-blocking technologies to force audiences to watch ads.

“The industry needs to do everything possible to make ads less of an infringement on precious screen time, by building on early successes that deliver targeted, relevant and entertaining ads – in a creative style appreciated by the individual,” he said.

“Advertisers now have a wealth of operational and analytical technologies to create advertising experiences that are engaging to the consumer.”

Native Advertising Leading the Pack

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Native advertising continues its ascent up the mobile advertising food chain.  According to a new study by IHS Inc., mobile native advertising will account for 63.2% of all mobile advertising by 2020, representing $53.4 billion in ad revenue.

The rise of the smartphone has certainly helped propel the native advertising trend, with approximately 3.3 billion smartphones in use globally at the end of 2015.  This number is expected to increase to over 5 billion in just two short years.

Who then, is best positioned to capture this growth? Third-party in-app native advertisers, like AdAdapted, are projected to be the fastest growers.  Revenues in this space are anticipated to grow at a 70.7% clip through the end of the decade.  From a geographical perspective, North America should remain a leading region in third party in-app advertising.

While such findings do not spell doom for other mobile advertising formats, native in-app advertising may cement its spot as a dominant force in the industry for years to come.  Click here, to read more.

Highly Targeted, Seamless Advertising Experiences are the Future

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We are in the age of the customer, where consumers want their data protected while expecting digital advertising to be relevant to them. Marketers are connecting with their customers in a whole new way activating CRM to deliver personalized advertising at scale. Data shows that CRM-targeted ads work better than traditional targeting methods, native ads are on the rise in Europe, and online reviews are are the new normal.

Consumers want personalized advertising that is tailored to them as unique individuals. Marketers can leverage first-party data to create these personalized experiences, which makes advertising more effective. According to Signal, 86% of Australian brands that use people-based advertising report that it outperforms standard campaigns on similar media channels. This is very comparable to brands in North America, 83% of which indicated that people-based advertising campaigns perform better, also reported by Signal.

In addition to CRM powered advertising, another emerging trend is native advertising, such as Facebook and Twitter ads that are integrated in the newsfeed. Why not blend the efficiency of CRM powered ads with this less intrusive creative execution? Spend on native ads will see huge growth in Europe over the next five years. The chart below by eMarketer shows European advertisers will spend €6.7 billion ($8.9 billion) on native ads in 2016, growing 97% to €8.3 billion ($11.0 billion) in 2020. You should adapt your creative in more ways than just altering the specifications for a given platform; you also need to match the essence of the app, website, or social network where your ad will appear.

As you focus on personalizing ads to your diverse audience, remember that peer reviews also influence purchase decisions. GlobalWebIndex reports that nearly half of internet users review a product or brand online each month. Don’t miss out on these conversations! You can build brand advocates by using your first party data to find your best and/or most influential customers. Use native ads to ask them to review your product or brand online and then use social listening to promote these new reviews in an ad targeted to people having conversations about products and services you offer.

Here's how marketers can get around mobile ad blocking

brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com
Some tips to circumvent the ad blocking threat

By Rohan Patil
Mobile ad blocking is on the increase. Prevalent on Android for a number of years and now an option for iOS users since September 2015, Global Web Index reported that 36.7% of mobile users it surveyed in Q4 2015 had used a mobile ad blocker at least once a month and a further 42% were interested in using one.

This is obviously a problem for mobile marketers, posing one straightforward question: how can we get around the problem of mobile advertising blockers?

The answers, unfortunately, are not simple or capable of providing a wholly satisfying outcome to mobile advertisers. However, we've identified four answers that could help you circumvent the ad blocking threat.

1) Avoid the mobile web in favour of mobile apps

The simplest solution to getting around the mobile ad-blocking problem is to avoid mobile web advertising in favour of in app advertising.

With ad blocking apps on iOS currently only able to block adverts in Safari and SmartInsights estimating users only spend 11% of their mobile time on the mobile web, heading to in app advertising is a blunt way to solve the problem.

Nevertheless, it isn't a wholly satisfying conclusion. First, shutting off an entire channel of advertising does not seem like a proportionate response to the problem. It could even damage your business if new mobile web formats, such as Google's app streaming offering, prove popular.

Second, and more worrying, ad blocking at a carrier level could put mobile app advertising under threat. Contrary to industry wisdom, The Register reported that carrier blocking by the likes of Shine will block ads within apps as well as the mobile web.

And with Android apps such as NoRoot Remover offering in app blocking, moving advertising from the mobile web to isn't a solution; it's a short-term repair job.

2) Pay the blockers to get through

How do ad-blocking companies make money? One of the most popular monetization methods is allowing companies to pay their way past the blockers.

You can therefore get past some mobile advertising blockers by meeting some basic advertising guidelines, such as AdBlocker's Acceptable Ads criteria, and spending a bit of money.

There are some positives to this. As reported in The Guardian, it may, ironically, be worth to pay to get through the ad blockers as the users most actively blocking may be valuable consumers. Meanwhile, the criteria set by many of the blockers for what is a good advert does mean ethical advertisers should be accepted easily.

That said, there are also clear problems. Acceptable advertising guidelines often rule out effective rich media and video formats, which may damage the effectiveness of adverts.

And, despite the protestations of the ad blocking companies, there is an unavoidable hypocrisy in paying a blocker to let you show an advert. Do you want to pay to support a business that makes money by damaging your business? That's a philosophical question you need to wrangle with.

3) Beat the blockers with new technology

In contrast to spending money circumventing a blocker, it might be worthwhile to work with publishing partners to work out ways to beat the blockers at their own games.

Online publishers, such as Forbes and WIRED, have activated tech on their sites which detects when an ad blocker is being used - forcing the user to pay for access, turn off the blocker or leave the site without accessing the article.

It may be in your interest as an advertiser to back technology such as this. Aggressive as it may seem, many sites on the mobile web rely on advertising funding to succeed and you may find publishers willing to work with you on it.

Equally though, it is a highly confrontational move that may alienate users. Faced with ad blocker blocking, some users will pay up. But others are already turning to sophisticated blocking technology that blocks the adblocker blockers.

Investing in the arms race against blockers may help solve the problem, but it equally could turn it ad blocking into an arm's race.

4) Use relevant, less intrusive, adverts

Finally, serving relevant adverts to users in a non-intrusive manner is probably the best solution to the blocking problem.

With Google punishing websites that run disruptive adverts in its search rankings and users responding better to adverts targeted at their interest, it is likely to be beneficial to advertisers in the long term to up their mobile advertising game.

By running less intrusive formats, such as in feed advertising or native web content on sites such as Buzzfeed, and working hard to ensure the right users see it, mobile advertisers can gradually change user perceptions of mobile adverts - staving off the blockers by increasing standards across the industry.

Conclusion
Solving the problem of mobile advertising blocking requires work from across the industry. By raising the standards of mobile adverts and removing the incentive to block, mobile advertisers can slowly fight back against the blocking trend.

Programmatic TV 101: The multi-billion-dollar ad tech that’s transforming television

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It’s hard to conceive a more exciting advertising opportunity than programmatic television. On one hand, brands are able to command consumers’ full attention with 30 seconds of full-screen sight, sound and motion on the big screen. On the other, they can implement the same data tools they use online to pinpoint the right audiences for their advertising message. With the potential to limit DVR skip-through rates by providing viewers with the most relevant possible advertising, programmatic TV represents the best of the digital and television advertising worlds.

So it should come as no surprise that programmatic TV is expected to be a $17 billion opportunity by 2019.

Given this incredible potential, it’s easy to be frustrated that the programmatic TV market hasn’t developed faster. After all, data-driven advertising is responsible for more than half of all online display spending, but only around 4 percent of television spend. But while a number of roadblocks still stand in the way of television’s programmatic future, the past few years have seen television networks, media buyers and advertising technology companies take several big steps toward bringing increased precision and automation to the market. Just as programmatic became a buying staple in digital media, so too will it likely become widespread in television, albeit with a different set of rules and objectives.

What is programmatic TV?

In considering the prospects of programmatic TV, it’s important to define exactly what it is we’re talking about. In short, programmatic TV represents any TV ad buy that uses data and automation to more precisely target specific consumer audiences, with the end goal of driving better return on media spend.

Programmatic TV represents any TV ad buy that uses data and automation to more precisely target specific consumer audiences, with the end goal of driving better return on media spend.

This definition is in contrast to programmatic advertising on devices like computers and smartphones, where every ad is targeted to an individual user. In television, only a relatively small amount of inventory is what we call “addressable,” meaning that an advertiser can target its message to an individual household. Right now, there are about 42 million addressable households in the U.S. Advertisers can send individual messages to these households by purchasing inventory from cable and satellite companies that can link their set-top boxes to the customers who own them. Unfortunately, these service providers only have access to two minutes of advertising every hour, meaning they are often unable to give buyers the scale they need to carry out large, national campaigns.

On the bright side, advertisers can still greatly improve the effectiveness of their TV campaigns by more precisely targeting audiences with high-indexing programming as opposed to individual households. The way this works is advertisers are able to layer on their own first- or third-party data to find the television shows and networks that a given group of people are most likely to watch. This goes beyond the typical age and demo targeting of, say, men 18-34, and allows them to a purchase ads during shows with an above-average number of men 18-34 who are currently in the market for a new pickup truck. They can also target by geographic location, allowing them to purchase ads in ZIP codes that over-index for, say, female homeowners with a household income above $100,000.

Why programmatic has yet to fully take off

One reason programmatic TV hasn’t exploded is many broadcast and cable networks are hesitant to make their premium inventory available to programmatic buyers. There remains a fear that data-driven advertising will commoditize inventory and decrease prices on premium TV ads. Plus, television networks don’t have as much incentive to change their ways as online publishers because they are still having great success selling most of their inventory, in a scarce marketplace compared to demand, through guaranteed, up-front deals.

On the buy side, since programmatic addressable TV was the first programmatic option to roll out, the limited amount of addressable inventory made it difficult for large brand advertisers to achieve adequate scale. In addition, addressable TV is not cost efficient for every advertiser, especially those with broad targets and mass appeal products. However, the introduction of data-enabled, high-index programmatic TV options addresses both these issues.

Still, programmatic TV continues to grow

This year, as the television upfront season approaches, we are seeing major movement and advances in the programmatic TV market. Just this month, AT&T announced its “Video Inventory Platform,” a private marketplace that will allow buyers to target audiences across 26 million households using automated ad-buying software.

As television and digital video continue to converge, we move a little bit closer to video advertising’s holy grail: The ability to purchase premium inventory aimed at select audiences with a single media plan that covers television, mobile and desktop devices.

Meanwhile, NBC took a major step toward adding the quality and scale buyers crave when it said in February that its entire portfolio of linear inventory would be made available to select buyers programmatically. Fox Networks Group has also jumped on board, announcing a platform in March that lets marketers buy linear TV inventory programmatically with audience characteristics beyond age and gender.

Indeed, as media consumption habits continue to shift seamlessly between linear TV and digital video channels, broadcasters and TV operators are recognizing the need to offer similar capabilities to customers buying their content across both linear television and video channels.

In fact, there’s reason to believe that in the very near future, we will no longer even think of there being a difference between television and digital video. As these two mediums continue to converge, we move a little bit closer to video advertising’s holy grail: The ability to purchase premium inventory aimed at select audiences with a single media plan that covers television, mobile and desktop devices.

Facebook Says It Gained 60 Million Users in the Last 3 Months

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Facebook reported its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Getty Images

Facebook just keeps on growing. And growing. And growing.

The social media giant added 60 million more users in the first three months of the year, according to its first-quarter earnings statement released today. That means it now has 1.65 billion monthly active users, a 15 percent increase over the first quarter of 2015.

Mobile users account for 1.51 billion of the total, a 21 percent year-over-year increase. Mobile revenue accounted for 82 percent of all ad sales, up from 73 percent in the first quarter of 2015.

Facebook's advertising revenue in the first three months of 2016 totaled $5.2 billion, a 57 percent increase over the same period last year, the company said.  

It also reported total revenue of $5.4 billion and earnings of 77 cents per share, beating Wall Street estimates of $5.25 billion and 62 cents per share.

"We had a great start to the year," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. "We're focused on our 10 year roadmap to give everyone in the world the power to share anything they want with anyone."

Earlier this month, the company unveiled a 10-year road map. And with virtual reality, internet-providing drones and messaging bots, it's no secret the social network is a much different company than it was 10 years ago when it was a mere desktop social networking website for college students.

Live video continues to be a focus for Facebook, as the company puts more resources into mobile video, live video and virtual reality. On the earnings call, Zuckerberg said people have "such a deep desire" to share, and it's up to the company to build quality products. For example, he said, it's building tools to share virtual reality videos in its news feed.

"We are in the beginning of a golden age of online video," he said.

Zuckerberg has also been a big proponent of live video. In recent months, he's shown the potential it has for users to share with their friends in a way that seems more authentic than a curated feed.

"There's just so much that people want to express and share with the people around them that they don't have the tools to do today," Zuckerberg said.

And video is certainly growing. According to COO Sheryl Sandberg, people are watching three times as much of it on Facebook as they were a year ago.

According to eMarketer, Facebook will continue to dominate the overall display ad category in the U.S., with the company expected to capture $10.3 billion in display ad revenue in 2016. That total accounts for about 31.2 percent of all U.S. display ad spending this year. (In 2017, eMarketer expects overall U.S. ad revenue to grow to $12.68 billion and then to $14.89 billion in 2018.)

According to eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson, Facebook's emphasis on Messenger and livestreaming illustrate its plans to put products other than the news feed on a path to monetization. 

With more and more users on a combination of Facebook products—WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger—the company is able to give a "four-way punch," said David Hewitt, mobile lead at digital agency SapientNitro.

Hewitt, who recently sold some of his Apple stock in favor of buying Facebook shares, said the brands he works with are more bullish than ever on Facebook. Marketers are increasing their overall spending on the platform while also testing out some of the new features such as messaging apps and video.

Despite all the good news, some recent reports have said users are posting fewer personal updates on Facebook. But Hewitt said that doesn't mean they're tiring of one of the oldest social networks.

"I don't think people are getting bored of Facebook," he said. "I just think Facebook is now such a staple that they see it differently. It's become more of an appliance, and I say that in a good way."

Alphabet: Can Google TRULY Challenge TV With YouTube Ads?

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Google says YouTube produces a higher return on ad spend, but advertisers aren't moving yet

Google loves to compare YouTube to television. During Alphabet Inc’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told investors that YouTube reaches more 18- to 49-year-olds via mobile than any cable network in the U.S, and the time users spent viewing videos multiplied in 2015. 

Source: Rego Korosi via Flickr (Modified)

Now, Google is making the case that television ad budgets should shift to YouTube.

In a meta-analysis of 56 case studies across Europe, GOOGL found that YouTube provided a higher return on investment 77% of the time. As such, it “recommended” advertisers spend more on YouTube.

Can Google Really Take on the $70 Billion TV Ad Market?

YouTube currently courts about $9 billion in ad spend, of which it shares the majority with creators. But the global television market is estimated to reach $77.37 billion this year. Clearly, that’s a huge opportunity for Google if it can get some of those ad dollars to shift over to YouTube.

While there’s no reason to think GOOGL is manipulating data and statistics to show YouTube is a better investment, there are reasons TV attracts so many more big brands’ advertising budgets. Yes, YouTube is currently the best investment for advertisers, but things change as soon as advertisers look to spend more money on YouTube.

YouTube uses TruView ads, which allow uninterested ad watchers to skip ads. That’s great for advertisers, since they don’t have to pay for skipped ads viewed by low-quality leads, but it limits the amount of ad inventory available. Naturally, this increases the return on investment for ad impressions that brands actually pay Google for, but it limits scalability.

This presents challenge No. 2: If ad inventory is constrained, advertisers will see diminishing returns. The result of more ad buyers as ad inventory remains relatively stable is higher ad prices, which decreases return on investment.

While YouTube watch time continues to grow, GOOG provides no details about how much of that watch-time growth is of high enough quality for brands to advertise against like they would on TV. A lot of YouTube viewing comes from the long tail of videos that individually don’t get a lot of views, but collectively make up the majority of watch time.

While YouTube provides a good ROI for brands, it might not be appropriate for brands to shift budgets away from television.

YouTube Might Cannibalize Google

A better option for advertisers may be to shift ad dollars from other digital advertisements and print advertisements to video ads.

Facebook Inc is already leading the shift, pushing video in its News Feed to get more advertisers interested in the medium. Facebook is admittedly cannibalizing its other ad business, “The video ad spend is not all incremental of course because every time we put an ad in News Feed, if it’s a video ad, it’s taking the place of an ad with another format,” COO Sheryl Sandberg noted on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.

While those ads carry a higher price tag, they can often produce a higher return on investment than display ads or ads in print publications.

But Google’s self-interest prevents it from pointing that out. The only company generating more from digital display ads than GOOGL is Facebook with its dominant position on mobile. So, while the more apt comparison may be YouTube vs static display ads, Google decided to compare YouTube to television.

That won’t prevent savvy marketers from figuring out how to maximize the return on their ad budgets on their own. And the market is already shifting toward more social and video advertising, while TV ad budgets remain static and digital display ads eek out only the slightest bit of growth.

Google will be fine as digital advertising as whole continues to grow, and it has a hand in just about every aspect of it. But if management thinks YouTube is going to take a significant portion of ad budgets from TV, it’s going to have to do a better job of convincing marketers.

Is the picture for the media industry really as bleak as Advertising Week seemed to suggest?

thedrum.com

The Drum asked me for a media-specific view of what we learned from Advertising Week Europe, so I’ll leave it to others to enjoy dissecting Bernie Ecclestone’s views on politics and gender. A shame as that would have been much more fun…

Because if you are in media (planning, buying or owning) the general message seems to be ‘We’re All Doomed.’

Sorry to have to break it to you bluntly, but there it is. I’ll give you the bad news if you’re a media agency first and save the really bad news for the publishers later on.

So, if you work in media planning and buying and don’t have the words ‘data’ or ‘scientist’ in your job title, start brushing up on those transferrable skills. You’re about to be replaced by a bot. The ‘Rise of The Machines’ has been a threat for a while, but it seems it is now actually here, with not one but two media company bosses – of Spotify and Clear Channel – claiming 100 per cent of their inventory will be traded programmatically within five years, thereby doing away with swathes of media planners and buyers. Oh, and we’re not calling it programmatic anymore. Ad Week pronounced the P word dead. It’s about automation now.

But hold on – elsewhere at Ad Week, we had Google’s vice president of display and video analytics telling us in no uncertain terms that we are a long way from being able to see customer journeys. Consumer buying habits are changing fast and data analytics can’t keep up. Most of us now own multiple devices and we switch between them constantly, submerging the real digital path to purchase in oceans of data. When Google – which, let’s face it, has done ok out of last click attribution – is saying this, we should listen.

Google’s point (which sounds very real to someone whose agency wrestles with such things for a day job) is that no tool currently offers any insight, just more and more data. Some 84 per cent of marketers don’t believe their marketing sources are well integrated (I’ve never met one of the 16 per cent - I wonder who these lucky brands are?). It doesn’t end there either: all Google customer journey examples started with digital advertising and it still couldn’t follow the customer journey. What about all of those people who are influenced to go online by TV, doordrops, direct mail, print, OOH (ie everyone)? Most of my e-commerce and mobile clients want that answer more than most things.

So, where does all this data mess leave programmatic, sorry automated, advertising? If you can’t see the customer journey well enough, how can any algorithm, however elegant, know what goal to optimise to? It all seems like reductionist thinking, which makes me hopeful there’s still room for real people, with all their intuition and creativity, in media planning. Sainsbury’s head of communications seemed to be assuming as much when she described her biggest barrier: her agencies not working effectively together.

Maybe the real challenge for media planners is to collaborate with other specialist agencies rather than spend their energy on automation and ad-blockers, which we learned at Ad Week are on their way to becoming a thing of the past. Phew.

Ad-blockers’ protection rackets have a little while to run yet though, which may be long enough to see off a few more publishers, especially the traditional paper and ink ones. Mediacom’s MD offered a forensic dissection of Trinity Mirror’s New Day. Principally that it was a launch with no digital presence (social media-only doesn’t count) and print circulation going from bad to worse. Bad news for newspapers still mourning the demise of the print Indy.

And Piers Morgan didn’t help, giving the newspaper industry 20 more years before it completely disappears for good.

Ad-blockers’ days may be numbered, but they still cause publishers real damage while they’re here and the news they didn’t need came at Ad Week from think-privacy.com. Their view was that the use of scripts to detect ad-blockers was illegal.

The consensus seemed to be that was not likely to be true, but still, what odds would you take on Piers Morgan’s prediction being right?

How Many Media Buyers Does it Take to Screw in a Programmatic Light Bulb?

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The consensus around programmatic advertising is that it has been seen as an enigma to even the most seasoned marketers. Why is this? As the newest form of buying and selling digital ads, there are still a lot of factors that influence the adoption of digital strategies. Programmatic advertising has shaken the digital landscape in just a short period, and for good reason. According to Forbes, “almost half of agencies expect to use programmatic for 60% of their budgets.” With any nuance, there is an adoption process, followed by a bit of an apprehension. With a little education and an easy-to-use programmatic platform, any marketer can successfully implement and execute programmatic advertising.

“Programmatic” ad buying can be defined as a means in which digital advertisements can be purchased, versus the traditional and timely processes of the past. Programmatic ads are bought and sold through a live auction, on a per-impression basis. Essentially, programmatic is a highly efficient way to buy highly targeted advertisements with an automated machine.

Programmatic brings the ease of use to those looking for a solution that connects marketers with 3rd-party data and real-time bidding across display, social, mobile and video. Programmatic allows marketers to leverage vast amounts of data to deliver relevant ads to their customer based on online behavior. This form of digital media buying brings three things to the table: efficiency, relevancy, and scalability.

• Efficiency: Programmatic media’s success is in its effectiveness by allowing marketers to easily buy media across hundreds of publishers with just a few clicks. Display media buying is benefiting from Trading Desks, SSPs (sell side platforms), DSPs (demand side platforms) and Ad Exchanges. Programmatic media buying allows advertisers to bid at the impression level to ensure they are targeting only impressions that have the best chance of generating conversions.

• Relevancy: Programmatic media buys often takes relevancy to the next level by allowing marketers the ability to utilize data and advanced algorithms to focus on a particular target audience. With real-time bidding and programmatic, advertisers can choose specific parameters, such as audience characteristics, behaviors, type of page content, and bid on impressions that fall within their defined target.

• Scalability: The exponential growth of inventory on the Internet coupled with the rise of programmatic automation in the targeting and delivery of digital ads has opened the doors to scalability. As programmatic buying continues to grow at an astonishing rate marketers are finding ways to integrate programmatic into their digital media strategies. Just as marketers are leveraging programmatic to drive more efficient media buying and higher conversions, publishers are using programmatic to scale their ad revenues by ensuring that they are getting the highest possible price for each and every impression.

So, “how many media buyers does it take to screw in a programmatic light bulb?” Programmatic empowers one marketer to execute seamlessly programmatic end-to-end by themselves using easy to use platforms.

With programmatic being new to the marketplace, it opens valuable opportunity for those who educate themselves on the adoption and implementation process. Programmatic is the future of ad buying, and those who take it upon themselves can find incredible opportunity. Test the waters with one campaign to determine if it is a fit for your brand. Once you have more faith in programmatic, by seeing incredible results, begin to integrate programmatic strategies into other campaigns.

Programmatic has increased the flexibility to test, learn, and adapt. This method of media buying has offered a new tactic within a digital marketing strategy. This approach requires a different mindset and skill-set. It is important for marketers to understand that programmatic is merely another tool in the marketing toolkit, used as part of a completely integrated communications strategy. It demands more than a single line on the marketing plan these days – today contributing to brand engagement, consumer development, audience insights, customer targeting, nurturing and finding new customers through lookalike modeling. However, it’s important to remember that effective branding lies in connecting the consumer with the right message at the right time.

The timing is ripe for brands curious about programmatic media to test the waters. Taking advantage of the efficiencies afforded by programmatic could spell big savings and new audiences for your brand. Embrace programmatic or be prepared to struggle against your competitors who are using programmatic. “The list of giant brands announcing major programmatic initiatives is growing long, with Mondelez, Procter & Gamble and American Express joining “old-timers” like Kellogg’s and Netflix,” shares AdExchanger. Programmatic offers ease of use through its simple-to-use platforms and provides marketers the tools to make a large impact using a single interface that allows them to run multiple programmatic accounts in a scalable manner.