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Programmatic Efficient, Effective, Economical
by Jack Loechner, Tuesday, May 26, 2015 6:15 AM
According to a study by Econsultancy, in partnership with Quantcast , based on interviews with both client side digital professionals, agencies and vendors and
senior-level marketers, 62% of marketers surveyed said they were running programmatic advertising campaigns specifically for branding objectives as opposed to direct response. On average, says the report, 40% of programming spending goes towards branding campaigns, with the advantages of programmatic branding most likely to be cited as
‘major benefits’ by marketers:
- Increased efficiency (64%)
- Reduced overall advertising costs (58%)
- The ability to optimize in real time (56%)
- The opportunity to leverage first-party data (52%)
There are still barriers that must be overcome to enable further investment, says the report. According to
the survey, 57% of marketers agreed that there is a skills gap in the programmatic advertising industry, highlighting the need for training on related skills. The survey also found that 41%
of responding companies were doing programmatic advertising exclusively in-house. Marketers also have their reservations over the control they cede in using
programmatic, says the report. When asked about the barriers to increased investment in programmatic branding, 23% of respondents pointed to ‘data privacy’, while ‘lack of
transparency’ (16%) and ‘brand safety issues’ (13%) were also cited as primary concerns. Despite these challenges, it is clear that programming
branding has a bright future, says the report. Marketers expect to have increased their programmatic ad spend by an average of 37% by 2017.
Marketers Respond To A Variety Of Programmatic Positions PositionStrongly AgreeSomewhatNeutralDisagree We can create engaging video contend
which will be delivered to the right audience 25% 33% 33 19
There is a skills gap in the programmatic ad industry 23
33 35
3 Effective multi-touch attribution is the key to further programmatic investment
21 32
38 9 Programmatic is only good for direct response advertising 20
31 35 14 I have a good understanding of programmatic brand advertising
20 34 26 20 By 2017 our programmatic
direct spending will outstrip our real-time bidding spending 18 27 38 17 Programmatic advertising is ready for brand scale 18 31 41 10 We effectively integrate
mobile into our programmatic branding campaigns 16 37 31 16
We can create smartphone ad experiences which do justice to our brand 16 34 30 20 Our programmatic direct spending outstrips real-time
bidding (RTB) budget 13 33 38 16
Source: Econsultancy/Quantcast, May 2015 Other findings from the research include:
Programmatic: Ad technology, designed to power data-driven audience buying, and pointed largely at direct response advertising, has evolved sufficiently to support
equity advertising. Once a single-channel medium (display), ad tech can now programmatically connect marketers to inventory across mobile screens, video players, addressable
television and even digital out-of-home. The proliferation of addressable channels that can be accessed programmatically, along with newly evolved reporting
functionality, makes it possible for ambitious marketers to justify pulling budget from linear television, print and radio, and into digital channels where programmatic efficiencies and
real-time delivery can increase lift at lower costs. Programmatic has the potential of fulfilling the promises of digital marketing. In the survey, 64% of respondents
considered that the increased efficiency of campaigns is a major benefit of programmatic, while 56% pointed to the ability to optimize and target the audience in real time.
Omnichannel: The traditional AIDA (awareness, interest, desire, action) funnel has evolved into a circuitous customer journey with multiple touchpoints. This new dynamic
(where consumers consume media on multiple screens for different reasons throughout the day) has made it increasingly difficult for marketers to deliver the right message, at the right time,
and right place. Marketers must react to various signals, emanating from social channels, review sites, in-store mobile interactions and more to try and create awareness
and influence brand sentiment. Gaining an omnichannel competency requires organizational disruption that starts with evolving the traditional marketing mindset, involves breaking existing
data silos and gaining internal competencies around the programmatic delivery of paid, owned and earned brand messages. An important aspect of building a truly
omnichannel approach is an attribution framework. In our survey, 53% of respondents agreed that effective multi-touch attribution is the key to further programmatic branding investment,
compared to only 9% who disagree.
Response to the statement:
“Effective multi-touch attribution is the key to further programmatic branding investment” Response% of Respondents Strongly Agree 21% Somewhat 32 Neutral 38
Somewhat Disagree 8 Strongly Disagree 1
Source:
Econsultancy/Quantcast, May 2015Mobile: The rapid proliferation of mobile devices (90% global mobile penetration and
50% smartphone penetration in evolved markets) has also shaken marketers. Not only has attention shifted to multiple screens, but the amount of unique data that marketers can
collect from mobile devices (hyper-location, elevation, biometrics, etc.) has changed the game from a targeting and analytics perspective. Mobile has also impacted
ecommerce in a fundamental way, disrupting the traditional notion of consumer ‘moment of truth’ brand decision-making, wherein consumers have immediate access to product
information at all times, as well as the ability to interact, and comment on, brands. Marketers must be able to execute campaigns across the mobile channel to successfully create brand lift
through programmatic tactics.
Measurement: Programmatic branding will not scale without the right tools to measure brand lift in the addressable market. Marketers
must be proficient in both marketing execution (delivering messages through programmatic channels) and also measurement (understanding the impact of equity advertising using available KPI
data). Key to this, says the report, will be the unification of offline and online measurement, such as Nielsen seeks to achieve with its on-going multi-touch attribution (MTA) initiatives that
blend panel and user level data.
Data: As with all addressable advertising, data remains the key ingredient to success. In the case of programmatic branding,
the role data plays starts with the unification of the consumer with all of their devices. By leveraging cross-device identity management (CDIM) techniques, programmatic marketers can
control frequency of messaging, understand multi-touch attribution, create higher-level funnel analyses and do more precision targeting. Applying data for audience segmentation, targeting,
optimization and analytics is at the core of developing a programmatic branding competency. Programmatic represents the largest platform change for the advertising
industry since the first banner ad appeared on the internet, concludes the report. It has driven incredible growth for the digital advertising industry and has still not reached its full
potential. With the lower funnel seeing most programmatic usage over the years and brand safety concerns limiting the use of the technology at the higher end, this report is hoped to
highlight the ever-increasing use of programmatic for branding activities.