This interview originally appeared on B&T.
Ad blocking is one of those pesky aspects of modern technology that threatens to hinder the advertising landscape, but could it be that consumers just want better ads? Chatting with B&T, MediaMath’s chief marketing officer Joanna O’Connell thinks this is absolutely the case, and the only way to solve it is with rich data.
“Ad blocking is a symptom of a larger issue of advertising not being as relevant or engaging as it could be—or as consumers want it to be,” she said.
“But ad blocking is not a panacea. We can’t block all advertising – that would just create a host of other problems, like how publishers support content creation.
“Rather, I think the industry is starting to realise that programmatic has an inherent power to make advertising better.”
As a programmatic company for marketers, MediaMath is a firm believer in programmatic solutions to the plagues of advertising. O’Connell suggested the way to vastly improve ads, thus rendering ad blocking irrelevant, is to utilise “the right data, analysed in the right way, executed in an integrated fashion, using privileged, premium inventory, through an omnichannel media platform”.
“Add in an intelligence component that can ensure what happens in media can inform what happens in audience management and some smart, dynamic creative, and you have the technological underpinnings to better understand and adapt to changing consumer needs and states across the purchase lifecycle,” she added.
“That’s how you combat customers’ disconnection with advertising: make their experiences relevant, seamless and interconnected.”
In the past, marketers and agencies have treated decisions regarding technology and media partners as interchangeable, which O’Connell says is ignorant, and needs to be addressed if an agency is looking to enhance programmatic delivery.
“A platform is not equal to a publisher. A platform is a vehicle used to access, buy and optimise across publisher inventory,” O’Connell said.
“And second, marketers and agencies sometimes sign on a new partner every time a new technology comes onto the scene, one where a particular bell or whistle looks extra shiny.
Read the rest of the interview here.