Mari Kim Novak, global CMO of Rubicon Project and veteran ad-tech executive, was speaking with someone recently about the pace of change within the ad-tech space. The person told her: “The level
of change we’re feeling today will be the slowest we’ll feel for the next 10 years.”
Wow. If this is slow, what’s fast going to look like?
“We’re at a tipping point right now,” Novak says.
The consumer has fully taken control, so to make marketing effective, the relationship between brands and consumers needs
to change. It must change.
Novak says that right now, “our systems are quite disrespectful.” She cites retargeting and how consumers are bombarded over and over with the same ad
for weeks on end, as just one example. Broadcast media has been getting away with this for years -- but digital?
My own recent experience with retargeting is a case in point. I ordered three
dresses from Macy’s online. They were all too big (that’s a good thing), but the bottom line is that I returned them, while Macy’s kept retargeting me and continues to do so, weeks
after the return! Macy's simply didn’t ask me what the reason for my return was. Had it asked I might have responded that I'd be willing to purchase the right size dresses at full price. If I
don't need tailoring, I'm fine with paying full price on occasion.
I'm with Novak: Stop disrespecting me with the retargeted ads.
And that leads to programmatic, sort of. Novak tells
me that the ability exists right now to build next-generation advertising ecosystems and marketplaces that will be more effective.
“We’re getting to a place where
audience-to-audience (not impression- to-impression) audience matching from a buy to sell side is happening more and more,” Novak explains. “We can look at value. If the seller has the
tools in place to be able to optimize their yield and the buyer has the first-party data, wherever it’s coming from, you now have the systems in place to do direct orders.”
Novak
thinks we’ll see more programmatic direct buying this year. And I don’t doubt it.
Also, programmatic ads may be responsible for electing our next president, Novak says.
“If you look at the dollars that will be spent between now and the election, TV is sold out. If you look at how close the race is--the ability to find certain audiences, to localize and targeti
candidates’ messages--this kind of buying becomes more imperative,” Novak maintains.
Simply put: Candidates now have the ability to target and localize their messages as never
before. Plus, there’s inventory available.
Novak says the election almost becomes a case study in how to do programmatic. Let's keep a close eye on that. Any campaigns willing to
come forward to show us?
Happy President's Day.