The IPG Media Lab kicked off Advertising Week bright and early on Monday, attending a panel on the future of programmatic featuring Matt Seiler, the Global CEO IPG Mediabrands; Vivek Shah, CEO and Chairman, IAB; Neil Vogel, CEO, About.com; and Tim Cadogan, CEO, OpenX; and moderated by Alex Kantrowitz of Ad Age.
Complementing, Not Competing
The hot button topic on everyone’s mind was Facebook’s announcement that it was relaunching the Atlas ad platform. Far from being concerned about a formidable competitor, the panelists believed that having access to more data would be better for everyone involved. As Shah noted, “If they can bring data that makes our inventory more valuable, I think publishers will line up.”
Context and the Audience
Far from mass standardization or “bulk buying” that the term implies, programmatic can actually serve to make advertising more personal and customized. “I loved the simplicity and honesty of a brief, but it always too broad of an audience, ” noted Seiler. “Now you can write those briefs to very specific audiences.” Most importantly, data can provide context to the consumer’s decision-making process. “If we can append data to how real people are behaving, that’s the future for us,” said Vogel.
The New Normal
Just as other marketplaces have shifted to more automated processes, the advertising industry will becoming increasingly programmatic. Yet these changes aren’t anything to fear—if anything, programmatic will simply be the way things are done. Within the next two to five years, in fact, Seigel predicted “session like this one won’t even happen.”