So much has changed in advertising in these last 10 years as larger portions of advertising budgets have moved to digital.
Once considered remnant inventory, 69 percent of all digital media will trade programmatically during 2020. First-party data is now a brand’s best asset, and marketers increasingly want more transparency into their digital investments, technology, and operations. On the downside, the dawn of 2020 has illuminated that we still have far to go to clean up our media supply chain so it’s safe, efficient, and valuable for all parties, from advertiser dollars to publisher content and success.
After such a dynamic 10 years, what does the start of the 2020s hold in store for digital advertising and its automation?
Earlier this year, MediaMath participated in research on this very topic with the 4As and 614 Group, who surveyed agencies, marketers, publishers, and tech providers. You can download the full report, “The Future of Programmatic and Automation,” here.
Reading through some of the highlights, I was struck by how many in the industry align to our strategy that we and our agency, technology, data, and media partners are building with the SOURCE by MediaMath offering. By the end of 2020, we aim to use our cross-industry collaboration to make the media supply chain 100 percent accountable and addressable and apply the power of AI to help marketers reclaim powerful performance from advertising. Some of the aligning highlights from the research include:
- Programmatic is the technology infrastructure that will underpin all data-driven marketing in the future, according to 62 percent.
- The effective application of automation to capture and resolve supply chain issues is a top priority in the next three years for 18.3 percent.
- The most important near-term marketplace need is identity resolution across/between walled gardens and publishers for 31.5 percent.
- Greater transparency on the costs and fees associated with programmatic advertising is another need for 19.2 percent.
We think 2020 will mark the year of the new digital media supply chain, one that prioritizes respect for people’s data, and a commitment to delivering transparent, accountable, and addressable advertising to reach real people on real media. The future of digital advertising and automation will only get better from there.