Programmatic Advertising – the Future of Marketing and PR

The pandemic has had a profound influence on many business activities, and Marketing and PR are no exception. All professionals are following an updated view on the COVID-19 guidance and endeavouring to deliver organizations with a strategic clarity across all operations in order to maximise profits and preserve organisational identity.

The prevailing mood around the pandemic is one of the biggest concerns for brands which are making substantial investments in events; and this extends to customer in-store and post-purchase experiences. On the one hand, evolving digital channels, shifting customer behaviour, and ground-breaking technologies are laying the groundwork for future-thinking activities that some sectors haven’t yet experienced. On the other, slower global economic growth – triggered by Covid – is shutting down opportunities as the budgets for testing new solutions might be lower.

Is Programmatic Advertising All We Need?

COVID-19 has caused one of the biggest economic contractions the world has ever seen, affecting every sector: from fast fashion to hospitality. But what has changed the most is society. In the beginning of April, Forbes stated that not only have our behaviours shifted, but we are online more than ever. With lockdowns to be seen across the Globe, we worked, played, shopped, had job interviews and stayed connected with our friends throughout the internet. With all events called off, we started to look for digital entertainment through streaming services or YouTube, as well as on social media channels. As a result of these changes, brands needed to reorient their focus towards Advertising and to always be one step ahead. The pandemic has created a weird environment, full of the kind of contradictions that we shall consider presently.

No events. No new products. And the lockdown. No one was ready for it; and PR & Marketing Strategies were no different. These branches started to look for new outlets in order to both promote existing products and achieve their sales goals. Luckily Programmatic is set to outlast the pandemic itself. In the latest article in The Drum we can read that “UK Programmatic buys outperformed global averages across desktop display, desktop video, mobile web display and mobile web video in the first half of 2020, according to Integral Ad Science (IAS).” The same situation applies to the US, where Programmatic accounts for 84.5% of the total digital display ad spend this year.

With us grounded in our houses and glued to our phones or desktops, Programmatic might be the solution brands are looking for in this new reality. The Covid pandemic has given Marketing and PR teams a chance to reassess the values by which they measure their actions. Navigating the future of Marketing and PR will not be easy but what we all need to do is to start coming up with recovery strategies in order to emerge with new needs, new behaviours and a post-coronavirus way of thinking. Let’s have a look at the most interesting Programmatic Advertising trends that influence the work of all stakeholders.

First-Party Data

Phasing out third-party cookies by Google within 2 years is the main focus of the digital advertising industry right now. But is it a challenge, a thread or an opportunity for Advertisers, Publishers and Ad Tech vendors? From my perspective, it’s a great occasion to better understand the target market landscape. Having that in mind, it might involve even higher ad spending (after all, the smart-collected first-party data are more valuable than third-party data whose quality remains much to be desired) and new technologies to come up with. Then the data will be more detailed, and the ads might be more personalized and efficacious. Undoubtedly, moving away from the third-party cookies ecosystem will be one of the biggest challenges of the times to come; but opportunities are sure to present themselves.

Creating High-Quality Content for (Programmatic) Addicted Society

It doesn’t really matter if your target audience is at work right now, or at home chilling on the sofa. What matters is that you can influence them literally everywhere. And the best way of reaching the target user is via perfectly tailored advertising. In this case Advertisers and Publishers need to go that extra mile and create a great experience for users — not generic, but extremely high-value content and ads. Just having that in mind, Publishers will need to develop a trusted relationship with users in order to get personal information in return for specific knowledge or beautifully designed content. Definitely, value exchange will define the new digital landscape that’s going to be profitable for Publishers and Advertisers; and if well-executed it will be also even more relevant for users.

Programmatic Advertising on Wearable Devices

It’s kind of a very future-thinking topic but the advertising potential on wearable devices may present new opportunities for Advertisers. Well, wearable tech knows more about us than Facebook or Google. They literally capture the user’s emotions and biometric features. What’s more, the digital interface of wearables can deliver multiple ads content pieces and formats but in a more interactive, personalized way. Why? This technology is designed to understand an individual’s moods. Therefore delivering the matched ads with the user’s emotions will be a major breakthrough for Marketing and PR practice. What is worth taking into consideration is privacy, which sooner or later will have to be at the forefront of all stakeholders’ thinking.

Programmatic DOOH Advertising

New technologies, new formats and creativity; these are the ingredients of the DOOH Advertising recipe for success. Typical OOH advertising has undergone tremendous changes. First of all, it is strongly influenced by the digital landscape. Secondly Advertisers, Marketers are outdoing each other when it comes to creating captivating marketing messages. 56% of professionals interviewed by IAB stated they are currently evaluating their potential Programmatic DOOH partners. Why is DOOH garnering such attention? Not only are all ads 100% viewable, but according to some research they attract audiences better than typical OOH. DOOH more precisely reaches and engages the audience; and with its current developments in mind this applies to cross-channel remarketing, offline-to-online attribution or localized hyper-targeting, Advertisers will be able to measure and optimize their ad inventory better.

CTV/OTT Advertising

OOH is not the only sphere that has fundamentally changed over the past couple of years. Exactly the same situation has happened with TV. The digital distribution of television content has won out over traditional broadcasts. This evolution is another opportunity for the Advertising industry to change the way it works, so that it can do things better. Now due to CTV/OTT and Programmatic technology, Advertisers can not only deliver KPI, but also create an astonishing campaign that will reach younger audiences who always carefully select the content they view.

Digital Audio Advertising

Another shift in our behaviour involves spending more time listening to digital audio than listening to the radio. Podcasts, digital radio, and streaming music services often help us get through the day. The Programmatic audio ads can stream on our smartphones, OTT, smart speakers, smart watches and desktops. Like traditional Programmatic, it allows geolocation targeting to reach the users we’re interested in. It can be a perfect strategy for Advertisers wanting to reach a broader audience or build a broader branding campaign.

Dear Professionals, Don’t Fight, Be Creative

A big concern for the Publishing industry, and indeed the luxury sector, is having to give up on glamorous events, and on making unrealistic communications around the products. Is this supposed to be a bad thing? I think if we all end up being more creative, shall end up forging new trends that will shape the PR and Marketing landscape. We might design a fully functioning marketing space for on/off-platform users based on what we gather about them through our platforms. And if we reimagine the Advertising business, our activities might be as glamorous as they were before the pandemic reared its head. Ultimately, we must strategically rethink current plans for the future and follow customer demand, focused on digital targeting and behavioural insight. At the same time, we must think globally, taking into consideration multiple markets and cultures.