In 2015, programmatic advertising was at the centre of discussions and events across the advertising industry. From Advertising Week in London and Interact in Berlin to the Festival of Creativity in Cannes, it has never been far from the headlines. With 2016 underway and a comprehensive schedule of outputs planned, we asked some of our Programmatic Trading Committee members to reflect on the challenges and achievements of 2015 and what we can expect from the year ahead. This blog is part of a Programmatic Future Trends series.
This blog includes contributions from Nigel Gilbert, VP Strategic Development EMEA, at AppNexus and Ben Faes, Managing Director Partnership Business Solution EMEA, at Google.
"As the IAB Europe report shows, more than 90% of publishers in 29 markets plan to increase their programmatic investment or revenue over the next 12 months and 40% expect an increase of more than a third. Indeed, publishers finally have better options than they did over the past decade for monetising their content, through a new crop of next-generation ad technology companies, -- particularly those that don’t also run competing media businesses. 2015 marked the year that major publishing companies more fully embraced programmatic and landmark programmatic sell-side deals were signed, many outside of the walled gardens that have long dominated global ad tech. For example, AppNexus signed deals in the second half of 2015 with over 50 new publisher partners, including Schibsted, Foursquare, Groupon, and NASDAQ. Publishers exist to provide the compelling journalism, music, film and information that comprises the Internet, and their quest to more effectively monetise their content, to create better forecasting models, and overall remain competitive in the high-stakes digital age, is only going to accelerate into 2016 and beyond through the lens of programmatic."
"In 2015, we partnered with BCG to understand how publishers can build programmatic teams for long-term success. The study found that the most successful publishers develop the right capabilities in sales and yield management, and realign their organisations to support cross-channel data-driven sales strategies. Successful programmatic teams have skill sets more like financial analysts or data scientists, and also approach sales channels holistically -- e.g. work across traditional direct sales and programmatic sales in order to best maximise total sales yield. An integrated stack enables publishers to create intelligent cross-screen campaigns to help advertisers capture moments that matter. And publishers can make a much bigger impact in 2016 by fully utilising the technology and understanding the impact of the programmatic techniques they’re using and trials they’re conducting. This was a key insight from the study. Publishers need to measure the impact of important changes to ensure they’re best maximising the right advertiser moments and creating the most short- and long-term value."
"Without a doubt, the most interesting area to watch in 2016 is programmatic TV. As an automated technology-driven method of buying and delivering linear TV ads, programmatic TV represents a significant opportunity which IDC estimates at $1.1bn in 2016. Another key driver for programmatic video in 2016 is efficiency. More advanced and sophisticated technologies allow buyers and sellers to trade more simply in a vibrant ecosystem. The introduction of Programmatic Guaranteed is particularly meaningful for video, allowing buyers and sellers to execute reservation deals in a simple, scalable way. Dynamic Ad Insertion will expand advertising opportunities for broadcasters and will enable inventory to be purchased programmatically. In a market with a lot of constraints on inventory, both are set to be game changers in 2016 and beyond. Finally, format innovation creates new opportunities for programmatic monetisation and provides buyers with scalable supply. The widespread adoption of in-feed video is a great example here, with more to come in 2016."
