AOL president Bob Lord discusses creative challenges in dynamic ad serving
Real-time marketing investment is being held back by the disconnect between the traditional creative ad process and the creative requirements of data-driven media buys, according to AOL president Bob Lord.
Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Lord said that currently advertisers' creative assets are not made in the volume or variety necessary for dynamic ad serving, and that this is holding back the effectiveness and therefore investment in real-time, contextual marketing.
"The real barrier here is that creativity has to go way up. I have placement nailed; I know where you are and what you're doing but the reality is that to get to that person and break through instead of four creative treatments I need 4,000 creative treatments. Once I have placement nailed I can overlay the index of creativity on top of it and optimise not only the placement but the creativity, but the challenge is getting that.
"The creative juices need to go exponentially up, to figure out not only the overlay but also the break through messaging and the branding that needs to happen," he said.
He later added that he believes a "well trained technical architect" can be as creative as an executive creative director from an ad agency and should therefore have a prominent place in the creative planning process, adding "I know it's a little bit of heresy in the creative world right now [to say that]".
Lord spoke of the importance of context within the media buying process, adding that this has become an "important barometer" at AOL.
"It all began with search context, then it moved to the social context with the introduction of the social graph, and now it's the interest graphic. Location and interest [layered] on top of each other gives a great foundation of context, and allows me to serve up advertising that is a value exchange [for consumers] rather than just talking at them.
"The idea that the banner ad doesn't transition well on mobile is because it was done wrong. We didn't think about the fact that the mobile device is something you interact with," he added.
Research has shown that not all consumers are onboard with the amount of personal data companies are using for commercial purposes, and for running activity such as location-based, contextually relevant brand messaging.
However, Lord said this level of distrust is non existent with the younger generations.
"We could all talk about how creepy this can get, but the fact is the new generations are giving their data away in forklifts, because they get that it's a value exchange. You [brands] just have to have a good relationship with them."
His comments come as AOL appointed a new managing director for the UK, hiring Google's UK director of agency sales Hamish Nicklin. He replaces Noel Penzer who has joined Time Out as managing director for Europe.