Problematic programmatic?
Programmatic is here to stay, writes AOL UK’s MD, Noel Penzer – but in order to drive our industry forward, we need to ensure we are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to turn this revolutionary form of advertising into our greatest asset.
How far are we from an industry where the technological efficiencies and data capabilities of programmatic work in perfect harmony with human insight and creativity?
Many people would argue that this utopian vision is light years away. For far too long, programmatic trading has been associated with cheap, remnant inventory and a commoditised race to the bottom. A world ruled by a disorientating number of technologies and vendors seeking to confuse and drive our industry’s core cultural currency of creativity to the point of extinction.
As a leading global media owner, heavily invested in programmatic, we wanted to set the record straight. On Monday we launched an industry-wide piece of research called Programmatic Futures: Where Culture Meets Code.
We interviewed over 100 industry professionals from some of the UK’s leading media owners, agencies, brands, industry bodies and trading desks to get to the bottom of what programmatic means to people now and, more importantly, how it is affecting the human role.
As part of our research, we wanted to test the commonly held myths surrounding programmatic and uncover the truth. Will programmatic lead to decreased creativity? Will it affect headcounts, leading to fewer people making fewer decisions? And will it lead to less collaboration and erode client relationships?
What did we find? Far from being problematic, the growth of automation is opening up new opportunities and a new wave of creativity. And while automation can deliver increased creativity, there is still a fundamental need for the complex insights and nuanced thinking of the human mind.
New advertising moments and new types of storytelling are being generated through programmatic. The complex use of data to target and track consumers and deliver perfectly tailored messages to them means campaigns have the ability to be planned and executed like never before.
When asked if the ability to target and track consumers through programmatic technology was leading to new forms of creativity, 47% agreed or strongly agreed, compared to 24% who disagreed or strongly disagreed. 64% also agreed that programmatic was allowing for better campaign integration across different media and platforms.
Overall, the industry believes that programmatic is enhancing creativity, with almost half of our respondents (48%) seeing it as having a positive effect, rising to 56% among buy-side respondents. This is compared to only 28% who claimed it was inhibiting creativity.
Although we are still in the early stages of programmatic, we are already finding that the time saving benefits of automation are actually enabling people (a third to be precise) to focus on higher-value formats such as native advertising. Whichever way you look at it, programmatic has never been more important to the advancement of creativity in advertising.
Dispelling the myths
So what about the other myths perpetuated by the rise of programmatic? Will we all be working with fewer people and forging less meaningful relationships with clients and agencies? We’ve found the opposite to be true.
57% of the people we surveyed disagreed or strongly disagreed that programmatic technology was replacing the role of people in advertising. And people have never been more essential to our industry, as programmatic is enabling us to strengthen relationships at every single point in the advertising journey.
In fact, over a quarter (29%) of heavy users of programmatic said that it was already helping them to spend more time with clients and 65% of our respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were now spending more time talking about strategy and audiences as a result of programmatic.
There has been a lot of debate recently about programmatic destroying collaboration. If you can manage an entire campaign through your desktop, where is the need for consultation and cooperation?
Conversely, we have found that agencies and publishers are becoming trusted partners in a way they haven’t before. Through the emergence of private marketplaces and innovative publishers offering more premium inventory, agencies and media owners are beginning to work together to get the most value out of their programmatic strategies.
Fraud and brand safety are often cited as some of the biggest problems facing the evolution of programmatic, but the changing dynamic between the buy-side and the sell-side is now leading to increased trust, honesty and better working relationships.
What does this mean for the industry as a whole?
It’s undeniable that technology is playing a bigger part and the statistics from our study show programmatic is still a divisive force.
What is clear though is that human contact and human insight remain vital.
Programmatic is here to stay. But in order to drive our industry forward, we need to ensure we are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to turn this revolutionary form of advertising into our greatest asset.
At AOL, we believe programmatic’s biggest problems can be easily surmounted through investment in education and training. Over a third (35%) of our respondents agreed that the skills gap is one of programmatic’s most pressing issues and when asked to what extent they saw programmatic changing the skills that they and their colleagues needed to do their jobs, the majority (61%) said the change would be significant.
This is why AOL is committed to upskilling its staff across the whole business. It is a hugely exciting time for our industry, and we all need to evolve our knowledge and skills to keep up.
We know that traditional sales disciplines and communication skills are still a fundamental part of the job. But when these skills are coupled with stronger analytical insight, human logic and creative thinking, we find ourselves armed with the necessary expertise to create the sophisticated, modern campaigns brands and consumers are demanding. It’s the perfect combination of maths (wo)men and mad (wo)men.
Problematic programmatic? We believe in progressive programmatic.