Yesterday, Joanna O’Connell, Director of Research, AdExchanger presented her findings from the recently released State of Programmatic Media report during a live webinar.
The report and webinar addressed the rapid evolution of programmatic technology and how it’s forcing brand marketers, agencies, and publishers alike to reevaluate the way they buy and sell media.
A few of the key takeaways and trends garnered from the webinar include:
•The cat is out of the bag, folks. Programmatic is here, and it’s here to stay. It’s also growing – growing across channels, and growing in terms of the transparency, operational efficiency, and control of data it provides for everyone involved.
•Marketers cited improved audience targeting and improved ROI as the most beneficial aspects of the technology, where as publishers cited operational efficiency and better sell through as its strongest proponents – programmatic is no longer about inexpensive or remnant inventory; it’s proven to provide much more.
•While marketers continue to spend primarily through open exchanges (61% of the marketers interviewed for the report do today), interest in allotting spend towards private marketplace and guaranteed deals is gaining significant traction.
Perhaps the most important trend discussed during the webinar relates to the changing service models seen within the industry. Brand-side marketers are increasingly in favor of a direct to platform service model. When the marketers surveyed were asked about the service model that best match their approach to programmatic media management, “Self Service DSP/DSPs” received the most answers, followed by “Full-Service DSP/DSPs.” Not surprisingly, over 40% of these same marketers responded to using only one DSP when asked about the kind of technologies used to manage their programmatic media across channels. Around 27% responded to using a mix of general and channel specific DSPs.
So does that mean the agencies that brands have gone to since the beginning of modern advertising are to be phased out? No, quite the opposite. Programmatic technology is changing how media buying is bought and sold for everyone involved. That means roles and responsibilities will change; agencies will become trusted advisors to the brands, who will become directly involved in their media spending.