• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, November 8, 2013

One of my favorite things to do here in RTM Daily is post the Hyperbabble of the Day. It's fun, it makes people laugh, and (hopefully) it causes press releases to be written with a little less pomp.

But the other week I came across a press release, written in English, that was issued by a company based in a non-English speaking country. It was filled with so much jargon that I literally could not understand what the release was about. And it wasn't some rough Google translation -- it had clearly been written for the U.S. market.

I brought this particular release to the attention of MediaPost's Editor, Joe Mandese, to essentially ask him: Would it be too mean to expose the pitch because of whatever translation issues the company may or may not have had in writing it? It was marketing to an English-language audience, so…nope.

But he mentioned something about the "complexity of translation," which brought up a great point. Is there so much complexity in the programmatic space that it will make international growth that much harder?

I asked around to see if some U.S. companies with international offices could shed some light on what "programmatic" means in those overseas markets. When I first reached out to Adap.tv, the initial response was that from survey reports they've done in the UK and Australia, programmatic, and video in general, are at different stages and have taken on different forms outside of the U.S. market.

Adap.tv's Phil Duffield, managing director of Australia, and Qz Hashimoto, managing director of Japan, offered their feedback on the topic. Apparently, Japan is "way behind" in terms of video ad tech. A company rep told me that "it's like 2008 there right now," and "programmatic…is in its infancy."

Phil Duffield, Managing Director of Australia:

From an Australian perspective, I don't think the definition of programmatic is different than the U.S.; I just think people's understanding of the term may vary. For example, a lot of people believe programmatic is purely real-time bidding (RTB), which, as we know, is not the case. I spend a lot of time preaching the fact that programmatic is about creating efficiencies, and RTB is just one part of this. 

The growth of trading desks has really spurred the growth in AU. All the large agency groups have their own desks, and now the smaller independent agencies are looking at technologies to create efficiencies for their clients and combat the larger groups' trading desks. 

Being able to control their whole video campaign -- including premium, exchange and private marketplace buys -- is becoming very attractive to agencies. The ability to have a global frequency and the flexibility to optimize in real-time is being seen as a must have and really driving growth. 

Other areas aiding growth include targeting capabilities with first-, second- and third-party data sources, and the ability to activate this data with ease. Nielsen OCR is becoming a currency in a lot of agencies too.

Premium programmatic: I think Australia is leading the way in this area as most, if not all, the premium pubs use programmatic selling and buying. They have found programmatic very useful in filling any remnant inventory at a very high rate; premium inventory is very scarce and their impressions get snapped up very quickly. 

Finally, I would say the ability to buy across screens is taking hold. We are seeing more and more campaigns with a mobile and tablet component and, as we know, linear TV will be next. Providing a video neutral product is going to be key for continued programmatic growth in the region. 

I don't think anything is too complex. I just think we need to be continually educating to ensure our clients' knowledge pool continues to grow. The only barrier to growth is inventory volume. There is a massive shortage of premium local inventory.

Qz Hashimoto, Managing Director of Japan:

Phil explained very well what is happening in the emerging regions of the video ad industry. Japan is a few years behind from even Australia, but the situation is quite similar.

I would say that the Japan video ad market will be about only $100M this year, and 80% of the market is driven by YouTube. Premium publishers can't monetize their content here just yet, but we are feeling the momentum accelerating in this first stage of the emerging Japan market. Multi-screen adoption will also help to drive growth in the video ad market.

As for the definition of programmatic, many agencies/advertisers/publishers still misunderstand that it means only RTB. I am also trying to educate the market that programmatic has several functions, beyond just RTB.