Telefonica and Visa Europe admit programmatic trading risks trigger 'alarm bells'
The idea of automated programmatic advertising sends ‘alarm bells’ ringing for some brands, according to Visa Europe senior digital communications executive Andy Donaldson.
Conference: Programmatic trading is a concern for some brands
Speaking at the Association of Online Publishers' (AOP) autumn conference on a brand and retailer discussion panel, Donaldson expressed concern alongside Telefonica's head of social media, Paul Fabretti, about the risks associated with programmatic.
Fabretti said he felt the brand was in safer hands under content partnerships in which media owners understood the importance of protecting brands.
“With programmatic the risk is that it goes somewhere we don’t want it to. Content creators get the risk. In our relationship with Bauer Media and the Go Think Big campaign, they totally got the purpose of what we’re doing. It’s early days for us in programmatic,” added Fabretti.
Donaldson of Visa Europe echoed Fabretti’s brand fears around programmatic, adding that it sends ‘alarm bells’ ringing, particularly where social media is concerned.
“Programmatic is not really affecting our business yet,” he said. “The advent of social has made it more necessary to think on our feet and be more reactive.
“The idea of automating any of that still rings alarm bells with me, especially when we’re not talking about towards millions of people, we’re talking about a select audience.
“That scatter gun approach, even if it is tailored, scares us a little bit I think because there is a loss of control and if you automate something, especially in the social space, you’re in trouble because if people spot automation it falls flat on its face.”
Earlier at the conference, News UK’s Abba Newbery warned that publishers and agencies must work harder to factor in the value of content to programmatic or risk publishers becoming “audience aggregators”.