This article originally appeared on MediaPost.
Joanna O’Connell joined ad tech company MediaMath as Chief Marketing Officer after a stint as Lead Analyst at AdExchanger. RTBlog recently had the pleasure of discussing her take on the industry and developments to come in 2016. Following are her unique insights:
1. The rise of programmatic marketing vs. programmatic advertising.
“There’s a difference. We need to understand that the worlds of paid, owned and earned media have been siloed and function differently. Those walls are starting to come down as organizations are recognizing that competitive advantage comes from having a seamless, relevant set of experiences. Knowing a lot about a consumer isn’t enough — what you do with the data is the important thing.
“What I mean by programmatic marketing is an automation of process and decisions driven by machines and enhanced by data. You start to see how real-time, connected technologies bring programmatic communications beyond advertising.
“For example, say three different people are served a dynamic ad — one for a vacation in Hawaii, Denver and the Caribbean. They interact differently with the ads. It’s customizing the experience in one channel based on what happened in another channel. One channel is paid [display] and one is owned [email], and those two systems are talking to one another. That’s ideal.
“However, the reality is that on the ground, this is held back by challenges inside marketing organizations.”
2. There’s a false dichotomy between privacy and relevance.
“This is very pressing to me. I’ve noticed that the discussion about privacy and relevancy is an either/or proposition. It’s an unnecessary battle between those two things. You can be respectful and privacy-friendly without sacrificing delivering relevant advertising.
“How do you involve consumers in the conversation? I’m asking brands. Maybe it’s a matter of showing how you use data in your privacy policy. Maybe consumers could participate in the kinds of segments they fall into. I’m interested in these kinds of things and consumers who are self-selecting.
“For marketers, are you willing to be more bold in the way you communicate with consumers about what you’re doing? Does that give you a competitive advantage? And if consumers are more involved in the decision-making, do they have warmer feelings about some advertisers vs. others?”
3. Is 2016 the year of the agency?
“Agencies have had a rough few years! It’s become the norm to stomp on agencies. I believe the pendulum will swing back to agencies. Marketers recognize the value in having good partners.”
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