Advertising Technology Challenges 2014

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Ad TechChallenges Challenges AdTech > Programmatic vs RTB > Programmatic vs RTB > Viewability > Viewability > Cross-platform tracking

> Cross-platform tracking > Mad Men vs Math Men


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Ad Tech Challenges

Lara Sheldrake Senior Consultant - Ad Technology Salt

> Introduction There is significant confusion in the marketplace over terminology regarding programmatic, RTB, programmatic direct, programmatic premium, and other terms which have often been used interchangeably. The term RTB, used to describe the bidding process of advertising inventory in real time, has been a buzz word that has dominated the digital advertising industry for the last couple of years. RTB, given the constant evolution of technology, coupled with the need for increased accuracy and transparency, needed a new name-programmatic. The two are related and yet very different.

know what to do with it. At the moment it is up to media agencies and tech companies to work in unison with publishers in order to best use this data. During the programmatic roundtable it became apparent that knowing an audience is one thing, but the question that is on everyone’s minds is ‘how do we then track the users from one device to another?’ The answer? ‘We can’t… not yet anyway.’ No one could come up with a clear answer as to how we can track across multiple platforms.

> Recruitment

Programmatic trading has also, predictably, created several key issues, which need to be addressed.

From a recruitment perspective, this has caused an increased demand for candidates who are more technically savvy. Sales people need to be traders. They need to understand metrics as well as confidently trade ad inventory. Ad ops professionals will need to be increasingly analytical, and it will be about optimising campaigns against new metrics as well as trafficking. It is also clear that many tech companies and agencies are looking to hire junior candidates or grads specifically from a mathematical/economical background, who can be trained up and molded into technical specialists with a skillset tailored their individual business needs.

> The Challenges

> The Future

With more advanced technology in advertising comes the need for more advanced and detailed sets of data. The big question is how do we use the data we collect? Many publishers are still unsure of how they can best monetize the huge quantities data they accumulate. Huge 1st party data owners have inconceivably large amounts of data however; they just don’t

The future of programmatic advertising will depend on how we unite as an industry and work together in establishing a better understanding of the technologies available to us. It depends on how we understand our audience better and how we develop methodologies and programmatic offerings further. Transparency will play a key part in how program-

The interchangeable manor in which these terms have been used in the last few years has left a great deal of confusion and left many scratching their heads as to how they differ. This confusion is exactly why we wanted to bring key industry figures who define the programmatic space, together for a roundtable to discuss and clarify some of the hot industry topics and challenges at present.


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matic is shaped in the future. Disclosed agency trading desks are already well under way, offering a disclosed solution that enables their clients to see where their money goes, what it gets spent on as well as see where the agency makes their margin and markups. Many emerging technologies are creating clear and significant value but there is also a lack of clear technical standards to ensure interoperability across different platforms. Buyers and sellers are concerned with the limited transparency and proliferation of vendors involved in the programmatic transaction. Programmatic also raises internal organizational challenges for publishers, agencies, and brands alike. This is especially apparent for publishers and their existing sales teams in regards to commissions, incentives, training and structure. Achieving greater transparency over fees/prices, the bidding process and inventory will require all parties from publishers to advertisers (and all those in between) to come together to agree common standards and methodologies and ensure these are adhered to. With the emergence of connected devises such as mobiles and tablets, and the technology behind them developing at such a fast pace, the means by which advertisers can track and target consumers when they make the transition from one devise to another is always one step behind. No one knows what the future holds for advertising technology but, I’m very excited to be part of the journey.

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Ad Tech Challenges AdTech Challenges

Ashwin Sridhar VP Online Advertising & Head of Ideas People Media, The Economist

> How do we differentiate between RTB & Programmatic? Can Programmatic ever truly replace the human element? RTB is a subset of programmatic. Yes, the world of programmatic advertising started with RTB but has since evolved. Programmatic is the automation of the post-sale execution process and RTB is all but one way of transacting programmatically. Programmatic can also be a fixed price deal where the rate is preagreed, much like with direct sales. At the moment there are platform restrictions that limit the ability to transact on a programmatic guaranteed inventory basis. With trading platforms looking to support programmatic guaranteed, it is inevitable
that direct sales transactions will eventually move to programmatic. However, I do not see programmatic replacing the human element. When machines are talking to machines with no human involvement, that’s a race to the bottom. There will always be the need for skilful storytelling, packaging of inventory, and creative solutions that need to be provided to meet the client’s marketing objectives. These cannot be done exclusively by machines talking to one another complimented with a data overlay. A human element will be required. After all, brand advertising is about storytelling and creative execution - can machines achieve this on their own? Perhaps, but can they do as well as humans involved in the process? Doubtful.

> What is the future for the way we measure Viewability? How do we ensure optimal conversions? In the race to monetise their web assets
and make up for losses on the print side of
the business,

some publishers have gotten in to the volume game. That is to generate as many impressions as possible, dump them in an RTB environment to make money. This has led to some overzealous inventory manufacturing - it is not uncommon to see a fourth or even fifth ad unit buried under the fold.

> How much value does this add to a marketers campaign? None at all. It’s little surprise then that marketers are flocking to visibility measures and demanding guaranteed visibility. Whilst this measure spells doom for some publishers, for others this is quite a boon. Publishers with quality advertising inventory can now build on their narrative of the effectiveness of advertising on their web assets based on high/ decent viewability rates. This is a step in the right direction for the industry as a whole. Where traditionally, we have been held to
 one metric - CTR - we now have another - viewability. Viewability is far more qualifying and representative of online behaviour exhibited by most. When was the last time you clicked on an ad? Can’t remember? What if I asked you the same question another way... when was the last time you noticed an ad online that captured your attention? Probably as recently as today! Publishers need to latch on to this trend and start talking about performance of campaigns not just in terms of CTR and viewability, but also in terms of engagement and interaction that might not necessarily lead to a click right away but conversion down the line; perhaps even offline.


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> What are the implications of tracking crossplatform? Can it be done? What is the future for cookies? With true cross-platform tracking, a publisher can show campaign performance across devices. It is hard to imagine such cross-platform tracking being enabled exclusively through the use of cookies. Cookies were designed for desktops, to store small pieces of data on one device. They were never intended for cross-platform tracking. The future of cookies is uncertain due to legislative changes, users accessing content form multiple devices, and 3rd party cookie restrictions imposed by vendors such as Apple. Publishers need to leverage the insight and data that they have on their readers to build a cross-platform profile, and develop a unified view of how readers are engaging with content and responding to brand advertising.

“Publishers need to latch on to this trend and start talking about performance of campaigns not just in terms of CTR and viewability, but also in terms of engagement and interactions that might not necessarily lead to a click right away but conversion down the line; perhaps even offline.�


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Ad Tech Challenges

Barnaby Chapman Product Director - Europe Mediaocean

> How do we differentiate between RTB & Programmatic? Can Programmatic ever truly replace the human element? Programmatic is all about automating trading on both the buy and sell side – RTB utilises programmatic technology to deliver relevant audience in real time using data, through a bid based cost method. We’ll always need people to facilitate relationships between buyer and seller, and to make judgement calls, however ‘smart’ the technology gets.

> What is the future for the way we measure Viewability? How do we ensure optimal conversions? Viewability will become an increasingly important metric for both buyers and sellers, but it’s not the only factor of the success of a campaign. Just like brand safety technology, it’s another metric to help brands and buyers feel comfortable with digital channel spend. For sellers, it’s a way for them to determine the value of their placements, even if they are below the fold, instead of the tool that will kill the other measurement methodologies.

> What are the implications of tracking cross-platform? Can it be done? What is the future for cookies? On one hand, you’ve got adaptive web design which in theory allows you to track visits to your site across desktop & mobile (including tablet).

On the other, you’ve got apps and ‘walled gardens’ like Apple and Google. If there is legislation which dramatically affects what can and can’t be tracked, will anyone be able to provide a single global ID which the market accepts? Unlikely.


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“If there is legislation which dramatically affects what can and can’t be tracked, will anyone be able to provide a single global ID which the market accepts? Unlikely.”


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Ad Tech Challenges AdTech Challenges

Myriam Benamar Optimisation Director Infectious Media

> How do we differentiate between RTB & Programmatic? Real-time bidding or RTB describes the process of returning bid requests within 100ms for advertising. It’s a mechanism for entering a real time auction for ad space. Programmatic is a broader term encompassing ‘automation’ of process and buying practices. RTB is a way to action programmatic decision making in ‘real time’.

> Can Programmatic ever truly replace the human element? Programmatic or automated process can replace, and has replaced, parts of human interactions in ad tech. However, human insight and control, especially when it comes to planning, should always be applied in advertising. Whilst algorithmic learning and optimisation changes can be automated they are always based on a set of rules or a sequence of processes which should be defined by a human expert. Media buyers first and foremost still deliver a service to clients. To understand the marketplace and select and set the correct rule sets, buyers must always engage in consultation with clients to ensure that the means meet the ends.

> What is the future for the way we measure Viewability? The buy-side leaders, like Infectious Media, are

taking current viewability measures to their limit to optimise campaigns. We are also pioneering the automation of this process by building it into our buying platform as an improvement to currently optimisable KPIs. The result of viewability solution proliferation will be to improve clarity and confidence with advertisers, as clients will increasingly demand these measurements.

> What are the implications of tracking cross-platform? Can it be done? What is the future for cookies? To achieve cross-device tracking there must be a common ‘key’ between a user’s various devices. The best ‘key’ advertisers have to join data for users across platforms, is a single login used to access services on desktop, tablet and mobile. It is login data across devices which allows Facebook and Twitter to show ads to users consistently across media like no other online publisher/network right now. This is why social seems to be the only part of the ecosystem to be doing mobile well in a joined up, rather than siloed, way. Talking about the ‘death of the cookie’ is premature, cookies will continue to be around in one form or another for at least the next few years. Their use may be increasingly restricted but as a means to track the basics of online advertising, they’ll continue to play a


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role. However, they will increasingly be used in conjunction with other IDs, logins and statistical tracking to build up a picture of user activity.

“Programmatic or automated process can replace, and has replaced, parts of human interactions in ad tech.�


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Ad Tech Challenges AdTech Challenges

Sasja Steenvoorde Data Operations Director MEC

> How do we differentiate between RTB & Programmatic? Can Programmatic ever truly replace the human element? Programmatic is simply a mechanism in which to buy digitally, whereas real time bidding on individual impressions against a data set is a more specific sub-category. Programmatic therefore encompasses private marketplaces and bulk IO deals too, where data segments may not necessarily be involved. Programmatic replacing humans should not be an end in itself, rather efficiency is the goal. With buying mechanisms and the products themselves becoming increasingly complex there will always be a need for people to help buyers purchase. This will mean platform technicians and data specialists taking the place of the traditional sales skillset; to enable smarter, data-driven buying decisions. As more inventory is made available programmatically, the risk is that good segments will be swamped by sheer volume – marketers providing education on what segments are and how to find them on exchanges will be key.

> What is the future for the way we measure Viewability? How do we ensure optimal conversions? The biggest impact viewability will have in the next few years is in the cross-channel attribution space. Quantifying VOD and display’s

role in the sales funnel is vital and viewability measurements in the short-term may unfairly impact the desire for this channel if numbers are perceived to be low. Measurement technology is becoming more reliable but confusion still exists given providers’ disparate offers from monitoring to blocking in real time. In my opinion, monitoring should be done up the sales funnel, and used to plan and buy media smarter from owners with proven visibility. Blocking in real time could be a function of the exchange or network itself, to minimise wastage. This should be a collaborative effort between client, agency and media owner, based on mutually agreed criteria. The combination of monitoring and blocking at various stages in the buy chain is the best way to optimise to conversions, however the client defines that metric.

> What are the implications of tracking cross-platform? Can it be done? What is the future for cookies? Tracking cross-platform, cross channel is the ad tech practitioner’s holy grail. It can and will be done, and soon, although inevitably this will initially be in different, conflicting tech, with the corresponding bedding in period whilst standards emerge. If these solutions are robust, cookies may become less necessary in ad tracking, but given their other uses I expect they


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will exist for quite a while yet. The implications should be clear: a single point of truth will finally give accurate de-duplication and the most complete picture of path to conversion (P2C) we’ve ever had. This obtained, our role as an agency is to make smarter buying decisions – capitalising on better inventory, innovative placements, and a cleaner, simpler user experience for the public engaging in web and other content.

“Programmatic replacing humans should not be an end in itself, rather efficiency is the goal. With buying mechanisms and the products themselves becoming increasingly complex there will always be a need for people to help buyers purchase. ”


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Ad Tech Challenges

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Ad Tech Challenges

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