This post is by Dario Diament of Headway Digital, a MediaMath Platinum Certified Buyer.
If you’re reading this blog post, then you probably know just how complex today’s marketing landscape is. In our industry we see a constant flow of emerging technology platforms and new channels for reaching and engaging with consumers. The proliferation of touch points combined with the ever-evolving consumer journey are just two factors spurring digital marketers to adopt the skills required to drive revenue for their brand in the digital space.
This isn’t an easy feat to accomplish, especially since, for many brands, the programmatic ecosystem connotes ideas of complexity; that it is difficult to get a programmatic practice up and running. For this reason, brands look to their agency partners (and rightly so) for guidance. Specifically, they say: “Help us get the right message in front of the right consumer, in the right context, regardless of the channel.”
At Headway Digital, we believe that the tech-led agencies must rise to the occasion. Our jobs are not to just provide technology, we must develop the knowledge and skill required to execute campaigns in every channel, thereby enabling marketers to make better decisions, reach the widest (but relevant) audience possible, as well as benefit from the creative renaissance that is occurring in today’s digital advertising ecosystem.
Headway Digital is a product of the programmatic revolution, and we spend a lot of time trying to understand, manage and select the right tech partners to serve our clients. MediaMath is one of those partners.
Team Building: An Important Requirement for Successful Campaigns
So how do we choose a tech partner that can create additional value for our clients? It’s really about building a great team. One member (be it an agency or the brand itself) may have excellent media planning capabilities, but no resources to develop a good creative. Or they may have a great story to tell, but no idea how to deliver it.
Complicating matters further, new advances – attribution, viewability, programmatic buying – requires considerable technical expertise that typically stems from a tech partner. At the end, we need to focus on what each player does best, and choose the right partner for delivering value to our clients.
Programmatic Transcends Data Silos
Today’s brands no longer tolerate “spray and pray” campaign execution. With an abundance of data points about their consumers, brands will put that data to work, carefully selecting the right consumer for their ads. In our experience, programmatic buying lets us transcend the data silos (e.g. website data, CRM, campaign data) and centralize all media decisions in the same platform. Doing so allows us to leverage that data in a standardized, automated and highly efficient way. As a result, we can design and execute smarter campaigns, leveraging all data available within the organization, augmented with all ongoing campaign learnings.
Selecting the Right Partners
Headway Digital set a goal of being a MediaMath Platinum OPEN Buyer Certified company (the top certification level) so that we can be part of the ongoing improvement and development of MediaMath’s newest capabilities and features. Being certified not only put us among the most advanced media companies, but provides us access to state-of-the-art media innovations that help our clients be more efficient and creative, which is our ultimate goal.
To learn more about Headway Digital, visit the site.