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How Business Relationships Can Transform an Emerging Region Into a Programmatic Powerhouse

April 27, 2015 — by MediaMath    

This post is by Victor Lopez, Programmatic Media Director, Affiperf, a global trading desk that uses MediaMath’s TerminalOne Marketing Operating System to execute digital marketing campaigns on behalf of its clients. This is the first of two posts that examine digital media and advertising in the Latin American market.

Although programmatic marketing is a relatively new technology offering, some markets have already demonstrated their proficiency and maturity in the short time of its existence, most notably being the US. While the LatAm market has been slower to adapt to programmatic marketing, it is committed to moving more spend to programmatic in the LatAm digital media landscape. This shift is promising to LatAm, with a plethora of advantages being brought to the region with the continued adoption to the programmatic buying model.

LatAm’s adoption of programmatic systems wouldn’t be possible if communications between the agency, partners and the client didn’t exist. Maintaining a healthy and open line of communication between these three key players – agency, partners and clients – is vital and creates a beneficial relationship for all.

While the integration of marketing technology is a top priority to maintaining a competitive advantage, the most important component of all is the human relationship between the parties involved in online advertising. And relationships don’t take care of themselves; all the members have to be actively engaged with one another to ultimately make the business relationship work and flourish. For example, by having regular meetings and trainings, an agency and its tech partners are more inclined to connect at a strategic level, and as a result, their particular goals will be more aligned; on many occasions we (the agency) have reached out to our reps (tech partners) about a particularly challenging problem we were facing and the response has always been a solution, even if it didn’t directly benefit the tech partner. These kinds of clear, open, and healthy modes of communication ultimately create greater value for the client.

Just recently, we reached out to MediaMath regarding sets of data segments, or audience clusters, that we wanted to capture and use, but the client was not using a DMP at time. MediaMath offered a solution that was both elegant and useful: by combining data management and activation tools with a cross-channel marketing solution within T1, we were able to deliver against the data-driven goals of the client.

Affiperf and MediaMath have built a strategic business relationship through the kind of clear, objective communication mentioned above. MediaMath has shown that is the trusted advisor on programmatic by supporting Affiperf’s trade desk business objectives through education, and helping the desk set up a clear programmatic road map for its clients – as the LatAm market matures, the agency offer must mature with it.