• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, October 21, 2016

Ad tech iterates, at times, on a seemingly yearly or even monthly basis. What was yesterday’s rage is merely a portion of tomorrow’s advertising stack.

Marketing to the individual is a process that's finally become more accessible to advertising teams, as device graphs and troves of data integrate into demand-side  and data-management platforms. Marketers are now focusing on merging the individual with her environs, to target even more accurately with precision and scale.

“Advertisers are focusing their buys on ‘situations’ as well as based on the individual,” Mike Caprio, general manager of programmatic and VP of partnerships at Sizmek, told RTBlog.

Instead of focusing solely on location-based targeting, or on the individual behaviors of certain consumers, marketers now aim to merge both into their strategies. Marketing in this manner realizes stronger engagement and creates a more accurate approach to data-based targeting.

“We had a strong case of merging multiple data points working with a major luxury brand in France,” explained Caprio. “With the primary target being Chinese tourists in Paris, our client was able to effectively target appropriate consumers by looking at both browser data and geolocation. We focused on specific areas of Paris that are close to luxury stores, and targeted consumers with Chinese in their mobile browsers -- resulting in above-average results.”

He continued: “Dynamism in marketing is where we need to go. The previous iteration in targeting had to do with merging first- and third-party data. Now we want to focus on creating a holistic approach to how we target and reach consumers, wherever they are and in whatever activity.”

These moves are impacting the programmatic industry in significant ways, changing the way marketers think about creatives, as well as how they approach targeting and data analysis.

The more targeted we get, the more important certain ad placements become, and publishers will increasingly value particular portions of their audience that previously might have gone unnoticed.