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Markus Maczey

How marketing automation and creation fit together

When it comes to programmatic advertising or marketing automation in general, media or technology experts usually lead the discussion, while creation often remains sidelined. However, in a world of advertising where computers are increasingly performing control-based processes, creation is an important criterion of differentiation for brands and businesses and should not be considered as separate to the technical implementation.

In the key discussion regarding programmatic advertising and marketing automation, the market is driven exclusively by technology and media experts. So far it simply hasn’t been necessary in creation to speak about technological solutions.

However, avoiding the modern opportunities for advertising certainly isn’t a solution with a future. Creative minds should know and use the possibilities for involving new technologies such as programmatic advertising – even if it isn’t their main task to promote the standardisation of advertising media or the measurement methodology of online videos on Facebook or to discuss interface problems between DSPs and SSPs. But they do need to develop an idea at the beginning of the process that will surprise the market and that isn’t expected. Only once this umbrella idea for a brand or product has been developed is it possible to meaningfully engage automation in marketing.

The greatest hurdles for programmatic creation lie in everyday work. This is because advertisers’ briefings for media and creation are unfortunately rarely coordinated with each other. Completely different objectives are frequently formulated for the two areas – depending on whether the aim is to achieve something for the brand or for sales. Furthermore, media and creation are usually different departments (both for the customer and the agency) that don’t always communicate with each other. How exactly the creative process works in an agency and in cooperation with the advertisers strongly depends on how the campaign planning is organised. The areas of strategy, media and creation are usually involved. If one of these areas starts the work on its own or dominates the planning process (which is usually the case) then at least one department is often dissatisfied.

Anyone wanting to advertise successfully in the programmatic age should try to engage all those involved at an early stage and incorporate all their perspectives. Creative minds need to understand how algorithms work and how media people tick. While media needs to realise that creative individuals have an emotional connection with “their” motif and that it isn’t just any old piece of cargo. Only in the symbiosis, in the understanding that the other group also has a very important contribution to make, do we get an end result with added value and a meaningful strategy. The foundation for this approach in the future should be for creation and media to have a shared budget. If, for example, creation addresses users with more target-group-specific advertising and varying motifs (and requires more time and money to do so), this money can then be saved from the advertising effect and the media budget can be lower.

As a first step towards finding a common solution, advertisers should precisely define what they expect from their communication or campaign. Ideally, marketing, media, sales and other stakeholders should get together for this and formulate clear targets for creation, strategy and media. After all, only once a good strategy has been decided upon and a compelling creation developed can programmatic advertising and automation demonstrate their strengths.

This article was published at Arabian Marketer.

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Andrea Malgara

Does data-driven advertising make good old-fashioned ‘reach’ redundant?

Andrea Malgara talks before his participation at the “Jahreskongress Digitalmarketing 2017” with the Management Forum about the relation of data-driven advertising and the good old-fashioned reach.

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Julian Simons

My Programmatic Big 3: We should talk about it

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When has a technology fully reached the market? When everyone is using it? If the first hype is over? Programmatic Advertising is now an integral part of the digital media business. Are we therefore at the destination? Certainly not, because as quickly as the market and its participants change, the challenges that we as market participants are faced with again and again change too.

In my view, it is the following “Big 3” in Programmatic Business that concern us and for which we must find solutions and approaches in the coming months:

1. Transparency affects all

What was and is bashed up on media agencies – the reaction is easy and will therefore be willingly striven for: “We do not know exactly what is going on – and the agencies are to blame. They enrich themselves and are the bad guys in the game”, that’s the often-heard implication in published opinion. This is asked ineffectively without a microphone and without an official position considered to represent it, and the answer is usually different and always turns out considerably differentiated. Unfortunately there is rarely a journalist around.

All the better then the presence of two advertisers at this year’s d3con in Hamburg, who tell of their collaboration with a media agency in the programmatic era and their conclusion seems to be different:”The collaboration between client and agency works like in a good marriage: You have to constantly work at it and mutual trust is imperative for both sides to get a good relationship.”

Hence my appeal: Dear advertisers, dear agencies, programmatic advertising allows transparency – use it! No agency will oppose it!

2. Fragmentation and orchestration

The programmatic world is growing exponentially: By programmatic advertising we are not only talking about on-line or mobile advertising. Digital-out-of-home, programmatic radio, addressable TV and other disciplines are part of this or these are already part of an overall programmatic campaign. This fragmentation poses a major challenge, in which technology can help us and offer new possibilities. But to the great majority who are serious about programmatic advertising it will be or is already clear that no technology in the world removes the central task from them: the correct orchestration of marketing measures – based on more and more devices and more data.

But is this new? Certainly not, this has always been the job of a media manager and his agency. Only, I think it is becoming increasingly clear where the journey for the agencies is heading: If we are not able to be a real consultant for customers in this fragmented world, we will soon have to consider what our job is. Because to retreat to purchasing or the sheer volume of purchasing is no longer sufficient to meet all the requirements of an efficient campaign. The integration of creation in programmatic campaigns has not even been mentioned, although this will certainly be the deciding factor!

3. Quality

When talking about data-based communication, the issue of quality is ever-present. But what do participants understand by quality? When asked for a definition, it is complicated and the answers are very different: Since quality is described, for example, as “maximum effect”, or even as “an advert seen by a person,” up to “quality includes the relevant message.”

None of this is wrong, but neither of these statements is truly comprehensive. And maybe that’s the conclusion: There is no uniform concept of quality! What quality is, is defined by each viewer from their own perspective. This presents us with the central challenge, to ask each other in advance of any communicative action what kind of quality is to be achieved in the end.

Or rather on what basis we should optimise a campaign. And here is the crux, because there are in fact very different fields that need to be integrated. Whether we are talking about the quality of coverage, quality of content or data quality – it will not be easy to build a common understanding of quality here.

Conclusion

Programmatic Advertising has fully arrived in the market and has been able to prove its benefits relatively quickly. But as with any stage of technological development we have to do some homework. The basis, like customers and agencies working together in the future, is just as important as a common understanding of key issues such as transparency and quality. Therefore let’s talk about them.

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Giovanni Ghelardi

Trends 2017: Italy 4.0

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2016 has been a good year in terms of the Italian economic upturn, thanks to a government that has made important reforms to work, recruitment and retirement, so (hopefully) we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel: after years of decline and stagnation, in 2016 investment in advertising is expected to grow by 3%.

Media planning is getting ready to capitalise on the opportunities: investments in digital have been growing rapidly in recent years, and in 2017 they are expected to make up a quarter of all communications investments. It’s also worth noting that mobile web has grown to make up more than twice the extent of PC use, and next year will absorb a third of all digital resources. We are experiencing significant developments in live videos, fresh daily content with Snapchat, Instagram and Telegram, and new scenarios such as native advertising and chatbots.

Nonetheless, TV is expected to still play a major role in the landscape, representing half of total investments though with one key difference compared to past situations: forget about wide audiences. In the meantime, unlike TV, other traditional media are not showing any significant signs of evolution. Their trend seems irreversible: fifteen years ago print represented a third of total investment; now it’s only 13%.

In such a challenging scenario, it’s no surprise that Programmatic is increasingly gaining share of use vs. traditional media planning: in Italy, Programmatic spending has grown from €42 million in 2013 to €260 million in 2016. Reports predict that next year Programmatic advertising will be worth €360 million, and €515 million in 2018.

Live videos

Mobile video consumption is forecast to grow by 33% in 2017, and by 27% in 2018, reaching 33.4 minutes a day. In this context, live videos will continue to grow among brands over the next few years. Social media users love to feel “in the moment,” and live videos give them that sense: rather than seeing a recorded event, they want to experience something immediately.

Live events foster engagement. When large groups of people are concurrently watching a live stream, it is a far more social experience than when they watch an on demand video on their own. Social connections and interaction during a live event are very attainable and extremely valuable.

Fresh daily content

Snapchat, Instagram and Telegram offer the chance to tell stories in posts, videos or photos that self-destruct after 24 hours. This means that each company must create fresh daily content for its users.

In addition, this volatility makes any content more interesting and appealing to the eyes of your followers. The knowledge that tomorrow will be too late to take advantage of the experiences, stories or snaps clicked today is dependent on curiosity, and creates urgency around the need to stay up-to-date.

Programmatic buying

In Italy, Programmatic spending has grown from €42 million in 2013 to €260 million in 2016. Reports predict that next year Programmatic advertising will be worth €360 million, and €515 million in 2018. As has already happened in more mature markets, the Italian panorama of Programmatic is becoming increasingly crowded, so in 2017 the big operators will redouble their efforts to increase the efficiency and customisation of their solutions, while clients will continue becoming increasingly aware of the offer.

Native advertising

Ad blocking is a phenomenon that continues to grow in Italy: currently, ad blocker usage is at 13% among PC users, while on smartphones it is at 7.6%. The prevalence of ad blockers is provoking serious reflection on the nature of online advertising. With an average click rate at 0.06%, it is now clear to everyone that online display advertising has to change. And so, native advertising is forecast to grow by 156% in the next 5 years, overwhelming the 52% market share that display advertising in Europe currently has.

Chatbots

Brands are beginning to use artificial intelligence for their customer service. The main advantage from using chat-based assistance is a speedier response, which could reverse the trend of consumers pouring out negative feelings about the company on social media. The Italian startup Responsa has created a Messenger chatbot to offer self-service customer care with high conversational content. The technology combines contextual analysis and natural language algorithms (NLP), ensuring a spontaneous and immersive experience for customers.

YouTuber licensing

In Italy, licensed products represents business worth €3.18 billion, while the global licensed products business hit €214 billion in 2016. A new trend is for “co-branded” YouTuber-licensing. To take one recent example, the Favij nickname, featured on various products, has proved to be a winning formula: the licensed Panini collection has received more than 1 and a half million sales. If at first no one wanted to produce a book with a YouTuber, today they are queuing up for the chance.

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Julian Simons

Why mobile programmatic does not yet use its full potential

The mobile Internet booms in Germany, both in terms of users and traffic. Even shopping on a smart phone is becoming more popular. At the same time, programmatic advertising has established itself as a fixed value, at least in online media business. As a consequence of both developments, mobile programmatic would therefore have to be a big hit. But the advertising volumes in this segment – beyond the silos of Facebook and Google – do not grow to the extent which one would expect. Why is it that mobile programmatic advertising does not yet use its full potential in Germany?

When we talk about mobile advertising today, we mean primarily in-app advertising with formats such as banners and video ads, all the way to full-screen interstitials. Three out of four advertising dollars are presently spent with apps. Apart from the fact that there are significantly different and fewer web formats in apps than on the desktop and the use of data on Apple devices is made difficult by the lack of cookie acceptance, in terms of programmatic possibilities, the mobile web works in a very similar wayto the web that we access on the desktop computer.

German marketers have overslept the topic

And indeed, mobile apps have already experienced a boost through programmatic advertising: before the era of DSP and SSP, coverage could only be booked via aggregators. A third-party control via the agency’s or client’s ad server was not possible. Due to the advertising ID from apps today, a very stable identifier is available which permits a longer-lasting profiling than a browser cookie. Via programmatic advertising, an advertising client can control his campaign, targeting these profiles for the first time in an app-encompassing way.

And there is another important advantage: data providers make data available that permit new and effective campaign approaches, especially in the area of hyper-local targeting – to address potential customers in close proximity, directly and accurately.

So why the hesitation? German marketers of quality apps have slept through the topic of programmatic advertising. They are only slowly making their coverages for in-app advertising reasonably programmatically usable – because this includes more than simply adjusting the app to the supply-side platform. This carelessness means that large parts of the programmatically available offer of mobile advertising in Germany still consists of opaque ranges of international marketplaces.

Not the technology, but the advertising formats are the obstacle

And in the “Global Exchanges” there are considerable deficits concerning transparency and technical control. The consequence: AdFraud – traffic which is generated, not by human users, but by so-called bots – is a significant problem for mobile in-app advertising, both in terms of reach and data, and thus represents an obstacle to growth for the industry as a whole.

With the extensive possibilities of programmatic advertising, mobile advertising also becomes easier to book and to control in a targeted fashion. But programmatic, too, cannot solve a central problem which advertising on smart phones generally still has: there is still the lack of large-scale, attractive advertising formats which are indeed eye-catching, but still do not annoy the users. If we can cope better with this challenge, the boom will be yet to come for mobile advertising.

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