Marketing consultant Alex Tait predicts ‘good’ programmatic future amid easing measurement and transparency fears

Well at a broader definition including Ad Verification there has been significant progress by the industry advertising coalition including ISBA, the IAB and the IPA supporting brand safety, viewability and ad fraud initiatives by amongst other things supporting standards. Issues around all three areas aren’t solved of course but there is significant momentum.

Why are they important?

Well for all the talk of targeting with programmatic for any advertiser you of course you need to ensure the right message, at the right time is targeted at the right prospect / customer. For that to happen it ideally needs to be in the right context (brand safety) and certainly be viewable (viewability) and seen by people not machines (ad fraud). However, there are certainly issues around data ownership and commercial transparency. These are live issues with many advertisers.

How much progress has programmatic trading made in shedding its image of ‘remnant, cheap’ inventory? How much further must it go?

Programmatic has certainly come of age and I don’t think it has an image problem now. The agency world has certainly bought into this – WPP’s significant investment in AppNexus is probably the most publicised example. I’d be surprised if there are many mainstream brands that don’t see it as a staple in their media mix now and don’t see that it will play an increasingly important part.

What are the remaining barriers to marketers adopting programmatic trading?

I get the impression that initially a lot of the publicity around programmatic came from third party specialists and agencies that could see significant workflow efficiencies as well as profit growth in their future business models.

Stating the obvious somewhat on the advertiser side there needs to be a similar focus on how it can impact profit and ROI. That’s the way you’ll get senior advertisers upskilling their team’s expertise and capabilities in this area - when they realise it is more than just hype and how it can help drive growth and efficiency. From people I speak to it is still often “put on the plan” as an without understanding how it can be fully exploited for example by utilising first party data.

What are the next wave of opportunities programmatic trading can provide in the overall marketing landscape?

Well I think some of good future facing points have been made so far in the interviews with other judges so I’ll stick to some more basics in this answer. I still see significant growth in the industry by advertisers and other providers in the ecosystem developing how they are measuring display and video. I spoke to a big video specialist before Christmas who hadn’t thought about how if advertisers embraced econometrics in (for example) FMCG they could significantly accelerate their budgets. Not for any other reason of course than they would be measuring the value of the media correctly.

What will you be looking for from entries during the judging stages?

I’ve started my judging already and there really are some great entries in there. The dynamic programmatic market is driving some interesting innovations. However, for a really compelling entry we need to move beyond just the “shiny and new” to ensure there is also a credible demonstration of how the entry added business value.

How did you get into digital trading/advertising industry?

I graduated just after the dotcom boom and built a website for a publishing business as part of work in its wider marketing plan. This was due to a mix of entrepreneurialism and curiosity to teach myself about this emerging sector but it certainly helped me get my first job. I’d recommend the same to any graduate - practically apply both what you are interested in and what you’d like to do as a career and make sure you never stop learning.

The DTAs, in association with AppNexus, are sponsored by Millennial Media, StrikeAd, Integral Ad Science, adform, Audience2Media, Tremor Video, TubeMogul, LiveRail, Sphere Digital Recruitment, Quantcast and eXelate. For more details please visit the dedicated website.