The Importance Of Programmatic Media In Marketing

Programmatic media spending is up nearly 50 percent over 2014 levels and will reach $15 billion this year. It’s a staggering rise which eMarketer predicts will only continue; by 2017 three out of every four ad dollars spent on display advertising will be programmatic.

Programmatic media definitions can be lengthy and varying. Ours is simply: Advertising that has less waste because it’s individually selected for each person.

In the coming years we’ll see the rise of programmatic buying for television as well as other mediums, including out-of-home.

Drake Cooper believes in optimizing programmatic ads based on data insights. Only 30 percent of agencies do this frequently probably because not every agency offers programmatic capabilities in-house. But for us being able to see real-time analytics–whenever and as often as we want to–not only enables the ability for dynamic creative adjustment, it can also inform refined marketing choices across an organization. Programmatic insights can help fine-tune customer email timing, social content, and sales team approaches.

Thalamus.co, the largest crowdsourced database of ad vendor data in the world, was interested in what we were up to and their Q & A with us allowed for some good discussion about the programmatic media landscape today and in the future.

Thalamus: How does being the largest advertising agency in Idaho, with a great Pacific Northwest regional presence, affect the way you view media buying?

DC: We have to carry an extra focus on precise geographical targeting. We have clients who only target consumers in certain states, select cities or even limited zip code areas. And this need still gets combined with finding the right lifestyles and behaviors. When you’re buying nationally there are lot of options. But when you need to really confine your spending to highly focused areas, you need think very critically, and creatively, about the media options you choose.

T: Would you say there are things that you do differently, than say an agency that primarily does national media buying? What are the strengths of having a strong physical local presence?

DC: It’s very easy for us to combine media teams and creative teams. This benefits clients because these teams are briefed together, their work sessions are together, and our client presentations are integrated. When you’re a national media buying agency having that type of relationship with creative teams is extremely difficult to do. And when these departments aren’t tied together there are inefficiencies and missed opportunities.