We know the marketing landscape has drastically changed and continues to rapidly evolve as new technologies, processes and tools come into play. Programmatic marketing, the automation of process and decisions driven by machines and enhanced by data, is facilitating real-time, connected technologies to bring programmatic communications beyond advertising. As programmatic marketing becomes more adopted across a wider swath of media budgets, there’s been a necessary change in how marketers undertake media planning. Forbes contributor Kimberly Whitler recently interviewed our CMO Joanna O’Connell about these changes and the impact they are having on marketers. Below is an excerpt:
Kimberly Whitler: How is the media planning landscape changing for marketers?
Joanna O’Connell: It’s changing because of two simultaneous forces: first, consumer behaviors and attitudes are changing; and second, the ubiquitous availability of data and the advent of sophisticated technology are changing what’s possible in media planning and, critically, media buying, optimization and measurement. Because of how and where people now consume content and want to engage with, and be engaged by, marketing, brands must look at media management holistically, across not only channels—including paid (like display and video advertising) and owned (like their websites, apps and email programs) —and devices, but also supply sources, data sources and measurement approaches that take into account both online and offline activity.
Whitler: Can you describe what you mean by supply sources? What are they are how are they changing?
O’Connell: The traditional way a media plan would be built is that a media buyer from an ad agency (typically) would call, for example, Forbes.com – the supply source in this example – and negotiate pricing and placement over the phone. They would talk back and forth, over the phone and/or email, until a specific contract was finalized, at which point an insertion order would be emailed out to the media supplier. Then, finally, an ad tag would be generated and emailed out, and so on and so forth. As you can see, bringing a media plan to life was extremely manual.
Read the rest of the article here on Forbes.