What real-time bidding (RTB) was to
online display advertising in 2013, programmatic will be to television advertising in 2018.
How’s that? eMarketer projected that 19% of U.S. digital ad spend would be via RTB in 2013.
Research firm Strategy Analytics on Thursday said it expects 20% of TV ad dollars to be spent via programmatic by 2018.
On some level, that's comparing apples to oranges -- RTB for online
display is vastly different than the “programmatic” television we currently see. But while the amount of automation varies, the general premise is the same: Use data to be more efficient
and effective with ad buys.
Strategy Analytics has a new report featuring programmatic buying
and its role in television advertising, and author David Mercer, vice president and principal analyst, gave RTM Daily a look at the executive summary.
The report notes that
television-based programmatic ad buying accounted for less than 1% of TV ad dollars spent in the U.S. in 2013, but as previously noted, the research firm expects that figure to grow to 20% within five
years.
In order to reach that point, the report says that standardized APIs for TV-based programmatic buying are needed.
The report highlights education, technological limitations,
control over pricing and increased competition as challenges. It calls workflow efficiency, price efficiency, new revenue opportunities and data-driven buying opportunities the biggest benefits.