Confidence is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry right now says MoPub's global programmatic demand lead
Last month, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey announced at Cannes Lions that they would be ‘doubling down’ on ad tech, and their global programmatic demand lead, Caitlin McGovern says she is excited about this focus. She explained that Twitter's acquisition of MoPub was a great moment in her career, and she is looking forward to seeing how the ad tech story can continue to develop for Twitter.
Caitlin McGovern says the two biggest trends in the US are quality and finding your right audience
Working with MoPub, a Twitter company, providing monetization solutions for mobile app publishers and developers, McGovern focuses on developing their relationships with agencies, trading desks, and direct marketers, to help them buy in the in-app programmatic ecosystem.
Ahead of her role as a judge for The Drum’s second Digital Trading Awards USA, McGovern tells The Drum that the biggest challenges facing the industry currently comes down to confidence, but by working together this can be overcome.
What do you think are the key trends in the US?
I think the two biggest trends in the US are quality and finding your right audience. Advertisers are shifting their buying mentality from siloed channels and specific inventory sources, to buying audiences. At the same time, advertisers continue to be concerned about the quality of their ad buy. We all need to ensure that advertisers are buying in a safe and viewable environment to unlock greater budgets.
What have been the biggest challenges in programmatic sector that the industry has had to contend with over the past year?
The biggest challenge has been around confidence. There is constant news and proclamations from large marketers that mobile programmatic dollars will not be unlocked until they feel confident that they are buying in a viewable, fraud protected, and measurable environment.
Over the last year, MoPub has worked with our agency and marketer partners to educate them on the process, product and partnerships we have in place to ensure that they are buying in a safe environment that will reach their audience.
Which of the above challenges are currently being addressed most effectively in your opinion, and which ones are likely to be ongoing issues?
The themes we hear and discuss with customers center around media quality and cross-device measurement. I think the industry has done a great job at working together to ensure advertisers are reaching their audience in a quality environment, but I still often hear from customers that there are challenges around their multi-channel attribution and measurement.
Where do you see the industry going in the next 12 months?
Video and native will continue to be major themes. Users are engaging with video and native content, and advertisers realize that these two formats are the most powerful way to reach their consumers. I’m excited to see how these two formats intertwine and how the industry aligns to provide quality inventory at scale.
How best can media owners employ adtech to improve yields from their existing audience?
Media owners need to take control and clean up their entire supply chain they need to have a consistent dialogue from start to finish with their vendor partners. That starts with their creative agency, supply partners, viewability partners, and measurement partners. By having a consistent dialogue, we can make this ecosystem more transparent.
As a judge for the Digital Trading Awards US, how do you see being awarded advantageous for those in the industry?
The Digital Trading Awards have prided themselves on breaking down barriers and confusion within the mobile ecosystem. Being awarded them in the US will provide great exposure and help continue to advocate for transparency and quality.
The Drum brings clarity and transparency to the ever evolving space. These awards shed light on companies that are doing the same, and I think these awards are important for the continued growth of the industry.
What would you expect to see from the entries this year?
I’m excited to see creative, and innovative entries, which help marketers synthesize and understand their mobile programmatic business.
McGovern was a judge for The Drum Digital Trading Awards USA in 2017, the only awards of its kind to reward the US adtech industry by recognizing and awarding the most innovative, creative and effective search campaigns and strategies across both PPC and SEO.
You can now register your interest for 2018 and be the first to hear when we are open for entries.
Sponsors for last year's event were: Media IQ, Intermarkets, Unacast, BidSwitch, Digital Remedy and Open X.