What we learnt from an advertiser roundtable on programmatic

Advertisers are questioning programmatic transparency, but is all this debate detracting from their advertising strategy, asks Martin Kelly, CEO and co-founder of programmatic advertising specialist, Infectious Media.

I’ve been talking about the great strategic opportunities for advertisers who use programmatic technology for a while now, but until recently programmatic has been seen as a niche approach, a line on a media plan.

In 2014 global advertisers like Mondelez, P&G and Kellogg’s talked publicly about spending the bulk of their digital advertising budget through programmatic, meaning it has now definitely hit the mainstream.

Together with ISBA, last year we held a roundtable debate for advertisers on programmatic advertising. The discussion was chaired by Nestle and attended by heads of media from fifteen brands including Shell, Argos, MoneySuperMarket and O2. The roundtable revealed three important aspects of programmatic that advertisers are keen to address: education, brand safety and the use of customer data.

The advertisers felt there was a distinct need for education, with the discussion revolving around how quick programmatic is developing and the sheer number of players in the industry. They found it hard to get past “industry-speak”, the technical complexity and the numerous links in the value-chain. The discussion moved on to the question of brand safety, with some citing the distance programmatic put between them and the individual publishers as the cause of a lack of control in where their ads appeared.

Regarding data, the room was split between the opportunity to make use of customer data to improve targeting and the concern over the loss of control of data and it being used inappropriately. However, the one issue all the advertisers agreed on was that there was a consistent lack of transparency in the industry. I have to agree, and it is disappointing to see. Advertisers need to have transparency into how advertising is run and what it costs. They need to understand what is working to get insights, whilst knowing their partner is acting in their best interests.

However, for us this all should be taken as read. Questions of transparency, brand safety and data security should be table stakes; everyone working in this industry needs to be able to provide answers on these before the conversation starts. They also need be able to provide the education and information that can give advertisers back the control they are missing.

What the laser-like attention to transparency shows is there has been a price-focused, old media buying approach to programmatic from some advertisers. But programmatic and the use of real-time data offers something fundamentally different to old media, and advertisers need to think differently to use the technology to plan media effectively.

To highlight this at the roundtable, I talked about a pitch process Infectious Media was involved in. A major advertiser had written its whole RFP about the need for transparency, completely forgetting about the strategy and what it wanted to achieve.

But as we start a new year, things are changing fast. Advertisers are educating themselves on the possibilities of programmatic and want more of a say in the ad technology and data that is used in their campaigns. This demand for greater control means we are beginning to see advertisers own parts of the technology; something that will benefit the more technology agnostic partners who are willing to work with a range of programmatic platforms.

This increased buy-in from advertisers will require new standards to deal with the problems of fraud and viewability. If not, we risk inhibiting the growth of the industry as advertisers lose confidence. Plus the gaps will need to be filled in programmatic’s effectiveness. On this, we can expect moves from Google and Facebook to make their cross-device user data available for both buying and measurement, boosting advertiser confidence in the measurement of their mobile campaigns.

We can also expect advertisers to demand more connections between the digital world and the physical world of stores, something that may be simplified by credit and loyalty card companies starting to use their store and product level transactional data for online advertising.

But I’d advise advertisers that to be truly successful in programmatic there are key questions they need to ask their partners:

1 – What’s your business model – how is your business structured, what part does programmatic play?
2 – What technology do you use – is it proprietary, is it customisable, can you use my customer data to plan more effectively?
3 – How do you deliver advertising – how has your team gained experience, for which clients have you designed programmatic strategies?

But most importantly, the new technology and data avenues now opening up will not move the industry forward without a fundamental change in the way advertisers approach programmatic. What is needed is a realisation programmatic isn’t just a buying mechanic, a lever for buying more cheaply or a line on a media plan; rather, that it offers a completely new way of communicating through advertising, one that relies on an informed strategy and smart use of data.