The Industry's Stance On Automated Media Buying

The advertising industry has seen a shift towards programmatic in recent years, and companies are still experiencing the growing pains that have come with the new technology. The Festival of Media Global group set out to answer what is perhaps the most pressing question surrounding automation: "Is the media industry ready for a future where an algorithm plans and buys media?" The Festival surveyed 100 agencies, owners, and brands and today shared the results, which show mixed feelings towards the future of automation.

Charlie Crowe, founder of Festival of Media Global, stated, "Automated media trading platforms have surely been a significant development in this industry. But while they have their place in elevating the effectiveness and reach of campaigns, they have yet to show maturity and gain the complete unquestioned acceptance of all industry peers." 

Crowe is right in pointing out the fact that automated platforms haven't reached full maturity, as 43% of respondents said that automation makes up just 5% or less of their media strategy. However, there are still those that are going all-in with automation. According to the release, 5% responded saying that automation consists of 90% of their strategy.

Regardless of automation's "unquestioned acceptance," as Crowe put it, it's clear that the algorithms (in some way, shape, or form) are here to stay. So how does that change the media planner's role? According to the survey, 55% of respondents think that the planner will become more of a consultant or advisor. 18% of respondents think the planner will become more important, while the exact same amount believe the planner will become less important.  One person answered by predicting that the role won't change much other than opening up more time for "strategic and analytical thinking." All that goes to show is that there is a divide in the industry as to the true impact this technology will have on the traditional media planner.

How are media agencies embracing automation? The results show that 38% feel that media agencies are "embracing automation and looking at ways of working progressively with it." However, there are still 25% that believe the agencies are "acting defensively and being slow to embrace it." One unnamed respondent commented, "Innovation is needed in an increasingly digital media world," which goes along with what 14% of responders felt - that media agencies now need to work harder to prove their worth.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents feel that the biggest benefit of automated trading is that it saves time and resources. Roughly the same mount of respondents believe that a lack of human input is the biggest disadvantage of automation. The other areas of concern included the lack of an industry standard and a lack of transparency. Even with those concerns, the majority of respondents (66%) believe that automated media buying will increase in the next year, with 26% of that group anticipating "substantial" growth.

The Festival of Media Global 2013 will take place in Montreux, Switzerland, from April 28 to 30. The event will include a panel called "Algorithm vs. the Man," which will further explore the future of automation and how it's changing the industry.

2 comments about "The Industry's Stance On Automated Media Buying".
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  1. Sean Callahan from Bizo, April 8, 2013 at 6:01 p.m.

    Here's a recent story from DigitalMarketingRemix.com looking at programmatic buying through the lens of both publishers and marketers. http://bizo.me/g4Ppy

  2. Michael Brown from adacado, April 8, 2013 at 8:10 p.m.

    It is encouraging to see studies being done on the agencies acceptance for automated media buying, and no surprise on the mixed results. Automated or programmatic media buying has a ways to go in order to fulfill what will be its greater promise through the complete digitization of media buying.

    The biggest problem with automated media buying is that for the most part, even though entirely digital, it is following the traditional agency structure which splits creative and media buying into two separate processes. While there will always be a need for creating new, revised and refreshed creatives through a separate process, automated media buying needs to be extended to include automated creatives based on the same data and rules that are influencing the media buy.

    When Real Time Bidding (RTB) and Real Time Creative (RTC) are married or even coupled-up efficiently, then Real Time Advertising (RTA) becomes extremely efficient, useful and productive, and a whole new world opens up for the agency (perhaps Media Planner) running the campaign. Agencies will own an even greater role in advertising as they manage the campaign process from the initial campaign strategy (including infinite variables), to campaign creation and then through continuous campaign optimization (often resulting in always on campaigns), always focused on the intersection of best impression with best creative, based on best data. This is not only interesting and challenging work, it is also highly sticky and will create new levels of client retention based on deeper than ever advertising data points. Algorithms will play a big part in RTA, but it will be the brightest most creative human strategists that achieve the highest levels of performance against varying sets of campaign goals.

    Simply put automating the media is super clever and a big step forward in automating advertising, but if you are going to digitize advertising, don't just digitize the buying and selling of the media, digitize the formation and delivery of the creative (ads).

    As Media Agencies become more involved in this complete real time advertising solution, then the pendulum will swing much faster towards automated media.

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