In today's column, the robotic future of advertising, the opportunities and limits of virtual reality in PR and marketing, a former Adelaide journalist's serious legal troubles, and much more.
The future of advertising
Apex Advertising CEO Pippa Leary blew audience members’ minds at our Mumbrella/InDaily Digital Futures event last week, with her whirlwind flight through the world of programmatic advertising (here’s a good explainer if you’re new to the term).
Media Week asked her to explain further about why programmatic is important, and why she believes it will dominate the Australian advertising world within three years.
The key advantage is efficiency: the automation and deep level of analysis allows online ads to be tailored to specific individuals in real-time.
“Relative to corresponding media budgets, the high-volume, low-dollar, high-complexity nature of digital makes it the most labour-intensive medium in the advertising industry,” Leary explains.
“Some smart tech players in the US solved the laborious nature of implementing these digital campaigns by automating the process of buying and selling ad units. Just like with the automation of the stock market in the mid-90s, digital display spots began to be bought and sold using algorithms in real time – by creating an auction between buyer and seller that happens in the 50 milliseconds it takes for the page you are looking at to download. This is called ‘real time bidding’ (RTB) and sits within the overarching definition of ‘Programmatic Trading’.”
While it usually refers to online display advertising – on news websites, for example – that is managed via software, it can also include non-RTB methods and types such as Facebook ads and the Google Display Network.
“It is important to understand the basics of programmatic because this will become the dominant form of media buying and selling – anything that can be automated will be. In the US, by 2015 automated trading accounted for nearly 60 per cent of digital ad trading, which by the way has almost surpassed TV. In 2016 it will be 67 per cent and by 2017 it will account for nearly 75 per centof ads sold in the industry. In Australia, it is also the most rapidly growing part of the digital ad market.
“What is important to note here is that a technology that started in digital is rapidly moving to offline media – TV, radio and outdoor.”
Leary says nearly every major TV network, radio station and outdoor company has announced moves into programmatic trading.
“Why? Because of the efficiency. The market loves the ability to buy media based on customer data – this is the new world and it will dominate the Australian market in less than three years.”
Virtual reality’s PR spin-offs
The consumer version of Oculus Rift – a virtual-reality headset – started shipping last month, sparking a flurry of speculation about what it will mean for marketing, PR and the media.
Companies such as the New York Times have already begun experimenting with VR, using a smartphone app and the inexpensive Google cardboard viewer.
Experienced Adelaide PR operator Tim Hughes told an SA marketing summit earlier this year that VR would soon become mainstream and, as has happened with the ubiquity of mobile devices, the PR industry will need to deliver content to suit the new format.
No comments:
Post a Comment