Delivering on the promises of programmatic
The term ‘programmatic’ is defined differently depending on whom you talk to, but at its most basic level, it’s simply the applied use of data and technology to buy or sell ads. Programmatic has all the components marketers need to effectively run campaigns – comprehensive data, audience targeting, third-party measurement and inventory quality. Brands and advertisers in Asia are increasingly more aware of the need to leverage data and technology to understand and reach their audience. In fact, data has become the new ‘currency’ which allows brands to make meaningful connections with the right users at the right time with the right format. According to a recent Forrester report, APAC is on course to dominate the programmatic space, with over 41 per cent of senior marketing professionals already adopting programmatic buying into their media buying processes.
As marketers allocate increasing portions of their budget to programmatic spend, there’s been a noticeable change in how it’s being used. Once the heartland of cheap performance inventory, we’re now increasingly seeing more requests for branding, creativity, and engagement via programmatic, as well as improved delivery KPIs.
Viewability guarantees are becoming a more common request, especially for video ads. We’re not quite there yet – particularly in terms of the interoperability between supply and demand platforms – but the sophistication of bidders in identifying viewable supply has certainly fuelled the momentum behind the concept of viewable-only campaigns. This in turn has led to increased pressure on publishers, who have been pushed to rethink page layout for optimal monetisation, while trying to balance this with user experience to counter the threat of ad blocking.
As per a recent industry report, Asia is home to 55 per cent of the world’s smartphone population, and is also the region where users are most willing to install a mobile browser that blocks ads. Ad blocking is an issue that we must all work towards addressing as an industry. We know users are more accepting of advertising if they deem it relevant, engaging, and non-disruptive. This is where programmatic has a real opportunity to shine because of its fantastic targeting capabilities.
The success of programmatic to date has had industry-wide benefits. For one, the number of choices buyers now have when allocating their budget has democratised the buying process. This has made transparency from all parties a must, helping to improve brand safety and reduce fraudulent practices. The industry’s support of programmatic is pushing the technology forward, and we’ve seen the growing capabilities of demand-side platforms, a technology used to manage and optimize ad campaigns, as they consolidate features. At BrightRoll too, we’ve seen the growth of our demand-side platform through the integration of Yahoo data and partnerships with a number of analytics partners. We have reached a point where every stage of the campaign can be managed from a single platform, including in-depth conversion analysis and reporting.
The standardisation of real-time bidding (RTB) has also opened the doors to video and native in programmatic. We’re expecting to see steep acceleration in the uptake of native programmatic because the infrastructure will be largely in place once OpenRTB 2.3 is fully adopted. The growing shift to audience-centric, device and format agnostic media buys suggests a likelihood that programmatic will become the delivery method for all advertising in the future. If or when this happens, the word ‘programmatic’ may actually stop being used entirely.
However, upskilling and a better understanding of its potential will be key to delivering on programmatic’s promises. More marketers are already seeking to gain a deeper understanding of programmatic, which is no longer regarded simply as a desirable pocket of expertise, but crucial intelligence in the new metrics-driven world of advertising. This required knowledge base applies not only to technical delivery teams, but also to creatives. By training creatives in programmatic thinking, the ‘big ideas’ can be developed and refined with programmatic in mind from the outset, driving more effective campaigns.
But in order to provide a more immediate stepping stone to a programmatic future, we must approach from another angle: today’s technical experts must also be encouraged to think more like marketers. Moving technical teams into the marketing mind set could then open up an additional layer of insight and technical rigour when it comes to creative execution. By meeting in the middle – working together from seemingly opposite sides of the marketing mix – creatives and technical specialists can each drive programmatic adoption and understanding in the short-term, and smoothen the long-term transition to a programmatic-led ad industry.
To ensure that marketers are buying programmatic intelligently, it’s necessary to make sure that the programmatic partner offers the following:
• Scale: the partner should have broad access to inventory options in the marketplace on both desktop and mobile.
• Targeted reach: marketers should have access to audience data and be able to integrate their own to reach their audience effectively.
• Efficiency: validated measurement and reporting should be available throughout the campaign, including third-party options.
Programmatic is already a fundamental pillar of the advertising world, and will soon be requisite knowledge for all of us. This isn’t an area for short-term solutions alone. Those that haven’t already begun to upskill themselves should do so now, whether they’re an advertiser or a publisher, a technical specialist or a creative.
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