So, is programmatic “The Wave of the Future or the Latest Shining Object”? The consensus among panelists tasked with that question here at Advertising Week: it’s both, and marketers and agencies need to embrace the future.
Programmatic “allows us to get much better creative in because math determines the best winners much faster and better than humans can,” said Bryan Chupp, Director of Digital Marketing at Pfizer. That was the prevailing sentiment, with Facebook’s head of measurement & insights, Brad Smallwood, pointing out that the majority of ad buys on Facebook already happen programmatically.
Referencing today’s relaunch of Atlas, Facebook’s ad serving platform that allows marketers to harness Facebook data for targeting ads outside of the social network, Smallwood said the platform is “about connecting identity so you can put the right creative in front of people at the right time.” He added, “We’re building in programmatic ways for brands to buy media, and be more detailed in their buys in terms of putting the best creative in front of people.”
Solving For the Offline Sale
“In CPG we’re solving for the offline sale. We have to connect the impression experience to the in-store sale from the same consumer. It’s a very hard problem,” said Chupp. Who said the holy grail isn’t just knowing which half of their ad spend is effective, but understanding effectiveness at much more granular level — having the ability to tie-back c consumer’s in-store purchase to the individual impression that influenced that purchase.
“We spend hundreds of millions of dollars that aren’t accountable,” said Chupp, echoing a familiar lament among brand advertisers. “We are probably pissing away a lot of money right now, we just don’t know where.”
Chupp said that the single biggest driver for companies to increase marketing spend is discovering a solution that tells marketers what’s working and deliver them more of those impressions. “The platforms that are truly great at doing this will be the winners,” Chupp predicts.
Does the Cookie Have a Future?
This question has been elevated with Facebook’s Atlas relaunch. Asked if there is a cookie problem, no surprise, Smallwood stated emphatically, “There is definitely a cookie problem,” adding, “the cookie is still around, but it doesn’t work” for today’s cross-device media consumption.
With Atlas, Smallwood explained marketers can leverage Facebook information to tie together consumer touch points, attribution and purchase data from firms like Datalogix to assess how their marketing affected in-store behavior. The question, Smallwood said, is, then “How do you turn that around through programmatic to deliver better creative experiences?”
So who will come out on top? “The holy grail is a persistent user ID,” said Ted McConnell, of Ted McConnell Consulting, LLC and formerly P&G for 32 years. Facebook, of course is one that has this, Twitter and Google variously have this as well through user logins. McConnell said. “Those that aren’t going to [ever have a persistent ID] are being a bit dismissive” in compensating with fingerprint data such as inbound bid requests, for example.
Also key, is the focus on programmatic and the influence on technology as a move toward making marketing more consumer/customer-centric, not less. It’s about using data to make marketing messages that resonate with consumers in the right context, not about driving down CPMs.
Who Controls The Data?
“So where is the agency in all this if ads are going to publishers and platforms,” asked moderator Steven Wolfe-Pereira, CMO of Datalogix.
Chupp replied, “We want the data, if you cede that to the agency, you lose that oil, it becomes too sticky.”
Smallwood countered, “Agencies understand the creative that’s working across a wide swath of clients, verticals, and platforms. That fusion of data and research puts agencies in position to act. There is some data agencies can bring to the picture beyond just the CRM data.”
So are all marketers going to have first party data and CRMs? McConnell answered, “It’s the source of marketing strength and becoming more so. Marketers say, would I hand it over if it helps my competitor. Brands are watching out to see if can agencies really protect my brand learning. Agencies have the potential to do that and they’ve basically said it’s our data and our right to do arbitrage. It’s the business’ right to not take non-transparent arbitrage and its my data.”
No doubt, this discussion about who owns the data, transparency and the role of agencies in this new paradigm will carry on. What all did agree on is that programmatic can and should elevate the creative proposition.
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