• by Guy Amos , December 8, 2016

Lunchtime waiters in Manhattan are going to hate me -- but it's time to kill the insertion order and buy all advertising programmatically.

I understand that it takes a leap of faith for this people-powered biz to move beyond the personal relationships that have been key to media buying and selling since the industry was established. 

But the real question isn't "if" TV, radio and print advertising will be bought programmatically, but "when."

Why? Because advertising is increasingly being bought and sold digitally, and programmatic is becoming the digital standard. And as more and more media planners and buyers plan and buy programmatically, they'll demand the same efficiencies and practices for other media channels. 

Though companies have tried to make TV and print media operate like digital media in the past, they didn't have the critical mass of media planners and buyers behind them. Today they do.

So what should we do as an industry to prepare for the future where all media will be purchased programmatically?

Establish standards: One of the biggest challenges to the adoption of new technologies is the lack of standards.

Historically, online and offline media planning and buying suffered from a lack of common standards.

That's why programmatic media buying and planning will win in the end. Not just because of cost reduction, but because it's the only way marketers will be able to manage their marketing spend across channels / verticals using one set of standards.

So all of the nomenclature associated with all programmatic channels must be standardized so that planners and buyers and marketers can use the same terminology when comparing programmatic radio with programmatic TV and programmatic print, and of course, programmatic digital channels using common terms like reach and frequency, gross/targeted rating points, or cost per thousand / action, etc. (all existing media planning terms).

The greatest issue isn't technical but convincing the different media to agree on one term. But with marketers increasingly demanding programmatic, I'm not sure any medium wants to be the one left behind in this new programmatic world order.

Need to standardize measurements across channels: Of all the things that need to be standardized, the one that's so important that it warrants its own bullet point is measurement. The true value of uniting multiple media via programmatic planning and buying will come from the ability to make apples to apples comparisons between the different media channels.

We might succeed in comparing terrestrial radio and TV, but it's more challenging to compare a print magazine ad with a display ad on the digital version of the same magazine. By standardizing how we measure ads across channels, it will be easier to  allocate ad spend more effectively across these channels.

Embrace auditing and transparency: One of the lures of digital is its apparent ease of measurement and targeting accuracy. Not many are mindfully aware of the wide gap between appearance and actuality here. As recent Quantcast research showed, one-third of vendors perform only slightly better than an untargeted media buy, adding less than 12% improvement in accuracy. Continual auditing of digital media, to the level practiced by offline channels, is not only essential to the health of the digital advertising industry, but is imperative in cross-channel comparisons. 

Standardizing media planning, buying and ad measurement will enable breaking down the media silos: Ultimately, the advantage of migrating all advertising to programmatic platforms is to level the playing fields between the various media channels so that they can be compared, planned and bought to optimize campaign performance across all media. If planners and buyers plan and buy across all media -- from social and mobile to TV and print -- from one programmatic dashboard, they'll be more likely to buy the best media for each campaign, and not the media they know (or from the sales rep who promised them tickets to '"Hamilton"). 

I highly doubt that free lunches and event tickets showered on buyers and planners are going to disappear any time soon -- but a move toward programmatic across more (if not all) media will make media planning and buying more effective.