Fox Sports, GroupM, RedDoorz, MMA & Iponweb on building trust in digital

John Matthews, director of customer acquisition, Fox Sports

Alongside brand safety an area of contention for brands is transparency in the supply chain for programmatic.

While there are parts of the chain that absolutely add value, there is also wastage and some areas that are simply extracting revenue and adding little in return. Until the supply chain can be validated with complete transparency and every data point examined, there will continue to be questions raised by brands and advertisers.

This lack of transparency is harming quality publishers and ad tech vendors as they are not getting the credit they deserve.

Blockchain technology will enable brands in the future to have a verified supply chain that can be interrogated to demonstrate where value is being added to their buys and which vendors/suppliers can be removed. Once this becomes mainstream, confidence will increase and therefore investment.

Regan Baille, chief digital officer, GroupM

Confidence stems from trust and in my experience trusted relationships are built by aligning values, continuous open communication and consistency in exceeding expectations over time.

Digital investment continues to rise but with the proliferation of technology innovation and intermediaries we need to work in partnership with our brands, to not only meet short term media goals but build sustainable long-term data driven digital strategy. I believe this will drive greater investment into digital channels and better ROI for brands.

Edward Wong, vice president of marketing, RedDoorz

This is a very open ended question. Every brand will have their fair share of good and bad experience with any channel. It need not be just digital or programmatic. The same challenge has been observed for OOH, TV, radio and print too. If a TV or OOH execution does not deliver the result/expectation of the brand, they will naturally look to hold back the next investment.

So the way to build confidence broadly is to ensure every single campaign is tightly tailored around :

• A beautiful, cool or impactful idea
• Tailor-fit messaging, offer and creative design and made-to-fit the specific channel, platform and placement
• With all these in mind, use this canvas to translate the brand's objectives very closely to the audience whom will be consuming the specific piece of content

If everything is fully tailored from end to end and with strong understanding of the brand's consumer and their needs and desire, I do not see why a campaign cannot be successful.

Most of the time where a brand confidence dropped is because of bad execution or bad result, which very often due to "cookie cutter" campaigns which are replicated again and again.

Be cool and original. Confidence will come.

Rohit Dawal, managing director, APAC, Mobile Marketing Association

Digital and programmatic are key to the future of marketing and require brands to step out of their comfort zones if they want to succeed and stand out. One way to build confidence in programmatic is to keep testing and improving existing algorithms and platforms. With the help of historical data, brands can try different approaches and methods to learn what works for them. Education is also key in building confidence. Knowledge sharing sessions and talks can engage industry practitioners to network and share best practices. Settings like these also encourage collaboration, where brands can work together to set up an ecosystem that will result in better cooperation to mitigate risk and build confidence.

Ryan Pestano, general manager, Asia, Iponweb

Lack of transparency around media buys and lack of education and understanding remain key challenges. I think these are two key issues we can address to help build the brands confidence in digital and programmatic. In our agency survey, guidance for media planning and buying were key areas that agencies utilised programmatic technology. Brands can work with and lean on their agencies to help them deepen their understanding of their campaigns and the industry as a whole while addressing their concerns around transparency and brand safety.

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