• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, September 15, 2014

“Taking programmatic in-house” is a thing -- and it might be the thing one year from now, if we are to take marketers at their word.

In a new AOL study -- which comes from a survey of over 350 U.S. media and marketing professionals -- 13% of brands say they have brought programmatic video technology in-house. However, of the 87% that haven’t brought programmatic tech in-house, 88% say they plan to do so in the next year. This data was already shared in a Real-Time Daily story, but I wanted to call special attention to it here because of how profound such a shift would be.

If every marketer that says they are going to take programmatic (video) ad tech in-house in the next 12 months does so, and every marketer that currently has the tech in-house continues to do so, that means that at this time next year the headlines could read: “90% of programmatic video ad-buyers now execute campaigns in-house.” Ninety percent!

Again, the AOL study deals with programmatic video exclusively, but as every marketer wants a “one-stop shop” solution, odds are that if they are bringing programmatic video tech in-house, they are doing it for other channels as well.

Such a shift would have an impact on agencies, trading desks, tech vendors and everyone in between. We’ve already seen proof that the marketers taking programmatic in-house are drawing attention, with tech suppliers catering toward marketers that want to do so. If they are getting noticed at 13%, what is 90% going to look like?

Will it get that high? Color me doubtful; we’re still at 13%, and that’s a long way from 90%. AOL notes in the report that “all the brands that [already] had brought the technology in-house said they had little choice; they did so because their agencies lacked the expertise to do their programmatic buying for them.” I don’t expect agencies/agency trading desks to miss the opportunity there to stake their claim to staunch the (planned) desertion in favor of independence.