• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, October 18, 2016

The digital advertising ecosystem changes continually to keep up with new creatives and new applications of data. How will it cope with the advent of 360, or immersive video, where views of every direction are recorded at the same time?

While the technology is not completely mainstream just yet, 2017 can be the year of 360 video, Stephanie Gaines, VP of corporate marketing at multi-screen ad-tech company YuMe, believes.

“Advertisers and the overall branding community are unusually receptive to 360 video,” explains Gaines. “We are moving toward an adoption of 360 video, with great openness and great pace. The publishing and media community have to connect on this opportunity so that enough content is created to develop a more affordable 360 landscape.”

Central to this will be integrating the technology into programmatic and real-time bidding platforms. “360 video is ready to launch into these various advertising platforms, making sure that the 360 marketing experience is optimized against time,” assures Gaines. “Once we see a stronger adoption of programmatic TV, 360 video will be next.”

Gaines explains that currently cost is a major barrier to the strong adoption of the format, but the more content we see built with these new technologies, the easier it will be for more advertisers and content creators to effectively adopt 360 video.

Integrations with programmatic platforms will be central to the format becoming part of overall media and advertising budgets. “We are already seeing 360 video used effectively in the travel, hospitality and real-estate businesses, but soon enough the engaging benefits of 360 video will be applicable across the marketing world,” concludes Gaines.