• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, December 7, 2015

Prior to launching Accordant, Muldoon was SVP, sales and marketing for global data platforms at Aegis Media/Isobar, while Greitzer was a board member of Publicis’ Vivaki Nerve Center and a VP at Razorfish, where he ran the agency’s trading desk. Muldoon and Greitzer had so much to say, I decided to run their predictions as a two-parter.

Here’s part I:

1. Programmatic will become a truly cross-channel discipline.

Greitzer: The most important development for 2016 is that marketers are starting to look at programmatic truly as a cross-channel discipline — whereas traditionally, it’s been focused on display. Increasingly, we see our customers looking at programmatic as a means to execute across all media channels. That means investments in mobile, video, social and even television are all being viewed through a programmatic lens. That speaks volumes on where the market is going.

2. Marketers will demand more from programmatic partners.

Muldoon: Marketers will continue to challenge their agency relationships as they seek ways to make their media dollars work harder. More marketers are finding they can get more control, access and accountability by taking their programmatic practices in-house — either by trying to build their own self-service ad stacks or by working collaboratively through managed service specialists. We see an increasing divide between agency Luddites and a new breed of data-savvy marketing technologists.

Greitzer: Adding to that point, as marketers challenge agency relationships, they are grappling with their approach to programmatic from both a service and technology standpoint. They are choosing between traditional agency relationships, self-service tech platforms or perhaps something in between. The industry is reshaping itself around those decisions. It’s a fascinating development, with industry-wide implications.

3. Mobile video will be the fastest-growing area of programmatic media.

Muldoon: The fastest-growing areas are mobile and video, but of particular interest is the combination of both: mobile video. It seems like mobile video is becoming the ideal mobile experience. Additionally, programmatic TV could grow fast relative to where it is today.

4.  Marketers will get better at understanding cross-screen/cross-device behavior.

Greitzer: Marketers need a common understanding of how they are reaching consumers across screens and devices. And that goes beyond understanding who they’re reaching; they must also be able to attribute activity across screens. That’s still a challenge today, but it’s getting better with the development of cross-device tracking.

The ability to understand consumer interactions with marketing messages — and consumer behavior across devices — is still sort of in its adolescence, but we are going to see it develop rapidly in 2016. I might even say that this will be the story of 2016.

Muldoon: I agree. As an industry, we need to continue to advance the ways in which we measure audience engagement across screens, whether it’s in a deterministic or probabilistic manner — or a combination of both. We need to dismantle siloed ad spending; this will help marketers better understand the impact of their media investments. That’s what needs to happen.

Meanwhile, we'll continue to experiment with deterministic, probabilistic and hybrid matching to help marketers recognize that there’s a rational story behind the fragmented way in which consumers ingest media.