Despite its many protests to the contrary, the programmatic industry and RTB in particular have been driven by performance metrics, direct marketing sensibilities and more often than not remnant inventory. We ask several leading buyers and marketers to tell us more than just “branding is coming” and show how they are using richer metrics and strategic thinking to integrate programmatic with overall brand and sales goals.

Brands want greater control of their data, their messaging, and their costs – not to mention a break from dodgy transparency from agency trading desks. But what does it really take to get there? How much needs to be in-house and how much can be outsourced and partnered in? What are the real staffing needs, and how does owning your own trading desk really impact the rest of a marketing team. But more than added efficiency and control, what does it take to make the most out of the torrents of data brands will own – in integrating them with other systems to maximize the upside? This user’s guide offers practical advice for marketers looking to own the stack.

In its ability to streamline outmoded ad ops inefficiencies yet maintain valued relationships between publisher and buyer, programmatic direct seems like a good idea. Let’s do it. But most measures still show but a small fraction of overall media spend using these platforms. We explore why and how the transition is not as simple as it seems. Disagreements continue over what technology works here and how it reorganizes both publisher sales and agency ad ops. Can this inventory integrate well with trading desks? Should it even live there? Worse, there is still incompatibility between the sell and buy side in the technologies they favor and over whose goals are being satisfied. We discuss how programmatic direct needs to evolve in order to expand.

Can Programmatic Really Serve Branding? - Chris Wexler, SVP, Director of Media and Consumer Engagement, Cramer-Krasselt

Taking Programmatic In House - Kevin Rettig, Senior Manager, Global Media Management, Accenture

Making Programmatic Direct Work For Publishers And Buyers - Scott Harkey, President, Owens Harkey

“The messaging needs to catch up with the technology.” That has been the mantra in the programmatic industry all year. But where are we seeing any progress? We ask the doers, not the talkers, to explore how they are proving that smarter personalization and versioning, prioritizing segments for custom creative, and even dynamic ad creation are proving their value. How are they using data to inform more segmented messaging, and how are they leveraging the technology to scale the creative to make it affordable?

Now that we have built a massive ad targeting and bidding infrastructure that can parse audiences with uncanny precision, it is time to ask whether this serves everyone equally. Do CPGs, auto, entertainment, retail, b2b, gaming, health and beauty need more discrete solutions? Just like specialized ad networks of old, will programmatic platforms benefit from vertical-specific approaches in their next generation? As some of these vertical pour serious money into programmatic platforms how can they benefit from the greater domain expertise, direct relationships with publishers, and target audience knowledge that comes with specialization? Should different technologies be applied to various verticals? And ultimately the industry has to ask whether and when the massive scale of existing programmatic platforms impede rather than encourage investment from some business segments.

With GroupM’s loud proclamation it would end transactions on open exchanges, and all media buyers clamoring for better inventory, more transparency, viewability and safety, the private exchange model is in vogue. But apart from challenging open exchange businesses, what does a move from open to private markets really entail mainly for publishers but also for buyers? Are the goals and inventory packaging from the sell side well aligned with buyer goals? How are both sides perceiving the distinctions among premium, private and open exchange inventories? Now that everyone seems on board to play the data driven ad game, how have the relationships among buyers and premium sellers changed?

Marrying Better Creative With Advanced Targeting - Scott McAndrew, Chief Strategy Officer, LaneTerralever

Customizing Programmatic For Specific Business Categories - Sara Pfitzinger, Snr Display Account Manager, 3Q Digital

Why Should I Be Buying Into Private Exchanges, Anyway? - Matias Perel, Founder & CEO, Latin3

Whether you call it data driven TV buying or programmatic, the big shift to buying audiences, not just shows, on TV has begun. Buyers are already leveraging online data to find audiences on air that traditional TV data can’t match,. The convergence of OTT, VOD and TV Everywhere inventory both on TVs and devices is building individual viewer profiles that finally can be tracked across screens. Even while ESPN, NBC and the major agencies still experiment with true programmatic buying of TV spots, the impact of the data and tech driven ethos is being felt. Are we getting close to an “audience upfront”?

We end the Programmatic and RTB Insider Summit on a practical note and leave you with rapid fire takeaways for getting the most bang for your RTB buck. A team of seasoned programmatic buyers will share their trove of best advice about when to start bidding, how to evaluate pricing and ROI, balancing open and private exchanges, establishing bids according to the quality of the data informing the bid and the platform being targeted. Soup to nuts – planning to analytics – here is a trove of advice to deploy as soon as you get back to the office.

Is Programmatic Really Ready for Prime Time? - Patrick Murphy, Director of Media Services, Off Madison Ave

Best Practices for Getting the Most From Your Programmatic Buys - Jason Barnett, Programmatic Lead, USA, Teads.tv