Thanks to the disruptive winds of change brought about by the advance of
technology and the proliferation of new platforms and channels, the media and,
by extension, the ad industry has become more interesting and complex than it's
ever been. The Carnage Report is lucky enough to talk to Robert Brill of Brill
Media Consulting who makes his living helping his clients see the forest through
the trees in this new paradigm of programmatic media buying as we navigate the
ins and outs of this relatively new and complex reality. Connect with Robert
via Twitter at @RobertBrill or make a visit to Robert's site at
brillmediaconsulting.com
Hi
Robert, what inspired you to start Brill Media Consulting?
I had spent 12 years helping
marketers large and small develop paid media strategies, and certainly enabling
agencies large and small to develop their digital media practices. During that time there was always a desire to
have control over the direction of the clients I work with, control over my
time, and the ability to take on projects that stoked my passions. Now I have all that!
What’s
your view on the current state of media and advertising industry?
Media today is amazing. It’s completely democratized. If you have a story, a voice or even simply
an idea the rest of the world has already developed for you the elements that,
in the past, would have been insurmountable hurdles. Those elements are distribution channels,
content creation tools and ultimately the ability to develop an audience.
Anyone can create or curate
content, develop that audience, and command the attention of advertisers. Stars in the traditional sense are competing
with creators. There is someone out
there right now who has to choose between spending time paying attention to a
TV star, a Vine Star, a YouTube Star, etc.
That’s immense power for creators and consumers. As a result we’re
seeing the golden age of content creation, and the formation of a new content
landscape. Everyone with a voice turns
into their own format, that if developed, turns into a new type of interactive
media channel that advertisers are paying attention to.
The ad tech side is equally as
interesting. The hard work of developing
proprietary solutions simply to operate a media sales enterprise has gone by
the wayside. By connecting to the
programmatic ecosystem buyers and sellers meet to exchange value for ad
inventory. And, it’s not just ad
inventory. The matrix of solutions is
multi-dimensional – ad placement, user data, creative and pricing are all
important in ascertaining when and where to serve an ad. The marketplace is so much more complex today
than simply using context as a proxy for age and gender.
Can
you, in your own words, provide a definition of programmatic media buying?
It’s the use of data and
automation to make smarter ad serving decisions.
What
form of programmatic media buying is better in your opinion, RTB (Real Time
Bidding) or Non RTB?
It’s less about better and more
about use cases. Better, in your question, is really a way of describing the
set of factors that are best applied for a single advertiser’s unique situation
at the current moment. If you are a
direct response advertiser you may prefer RTB channels to find the lower priced
inventory that others couldn’t find value in.
If you are a brand advertiser then you may be interested in non-RTB
inventory that is bought today and fulfilled tomorrow; the forward
markets. If you’re a trading desk then
you may develop a proprietary set of premium publisher relationship that you
turn on at will to give clients your premium network solution.
Not
so long ago publishers complained about programmatic affecting their ad prices
negatively and advertisers pointed to fraud. In your opinion, what obstacles do
you think are in the way of both advertisers and publishers making the most of
programmatic media buying?
There are a few. The first is naming. If you look at the IAB chart that details the
four types of programmatic buying you’ll see each category is also called three
or four other things depending on the platform that’s being used. Invitation Only Auction is also called:
private marketplace, private auction, closed auction or private access. Can we just have one name for it?
Education is the next
challenge. Programmatic buying seems to
be a more complex mode of operations today than traditional (digital) media
buying was just a decade ago. That’s really
because we’re in a state of profound change.
At some point there will be parity in the marketplace, but for now
programmatic media requires smart executives to really figure out the nuances
of this space, and then filter up and down the organizational hierarchy the
elements that are important to each level.
The senior management needs to know how
programmatic is changing the landscape, presenting opportunities and creating
threats. They need to use that
information to make smart enterprise decisions. The middle management group needs
to see programmatic as a way of meeting revenue goals, or losing them if they
don’t adapt. The operations staff needs
to know the how to use programmatic toolsets, how to test and adapt for
business success, and how to drive revenue.
The junior operations staff needs
to know how to setup campaigns, to pull reporting, ensure campaigns don’t
over-spend and ensure the senior folks have all the client data they need to
make smarter strategic and account decisions.
The sales group needs to see programmatic media as a source of either
protected revenue today (if they already implemented programmatic), earned
revenue tomorrow if they adapt to programmatic media today, or lost revenue
tomorrow if they don’t adapt to programmatic methods.
On a more practical level it’s still difficult to activate Private Auction
(aka Invitation Only Auction) deals
between some buyers and sellers. Because
ad tech is so flexible it also becomes a little complicated to use. So, when something is wrong it’s not just the
agency (for example) and the publisher who need to communicate. Now you also need the DSP rep and the SSP or
ad exchange rep to be involved. That means more people to get on the phone,
finger pointing and people who really aren’t sure who’s at fault. Fault in this new and really complex
transitional period should be less of an issue, but buyers will always look for
opportunities to ask for added value.
Sales people are worried about
their commissions. Many times they are
only interested in getting programmatic developed when they start seeing the
clients are changing their ad spending patterns, or worse, they start losing
buys. The challenge is that the media
press sensationalizes when networks or publisher terminate their sales staff. If the publisher has a differentiated
offering then they need sales people to evangelize that offering.
If the publisher doesn’t have a
differentiated offering they still need people to educate programmatic buyers
about their programmatic offering: different RTB opportunities, proprietary
data offering, private marketplaces, unreserved fixed rate inventory and
certainly automated guaranteed opportunities.
If you have something to sell then you need a seller to educate buyers
about the opportunity.
So, sales people are concerned
about their jobs and their commissions, so there’s an interest to push away
from programmatic products.
Relationships still matter. In a
few years programmatic will simply be called advertising, so the more you do
today to become a programmatic operator the more business you are protecting
from tomorrow’s competition.
Why
do you think TV networks are prepared to sell their inventory programmatically
when they command high prices currently and programmatic media buying having the
reputation of lowering ad prices for publishers?
Some of the info above applies
to TV ad sellers. When buyers demand to buy space using programmatic pipes
sellers will cave to the demands of the marketplace. Premium and high quality inventory are important. So, programmatic pipes will
make the selling of premium TV inventory a viable solution.
A second component of that
buyer demand will be the ability to tie back viewership to audience data. Buying towards data segments or customer
segments will become an important way TV evolves. There is so much research that goes into
understanding the customer, but then buyers for 60 years have had this really
blunt force tool to buy TV ads: age and gender reach augmented by frequency. Exponentially more
information about the consumer journey exists, relating to use cases, user experiences
and the value that products bring to consumers. Advertisers have this
information, so programmatic TV is a way for buyers to be more precise with
their TV buys.
Many,
including you, have talked about the upsides of programmatic media buying.
What, in your opinion, are the downsides of Programmatic media buying?
It’s change and change causes
problems for institutions, companies and people. This disruption means that new players will
win that would not have had a chance had programmatic media not developed. Certainly people who aren’t interested in
learning about advertising’s future will be left out.
There will be a human cost, and that’s
unfortunate, which is why we are always interested in educating the marketplace
about programmatic media. But that doesn’t
stop innovation from happening. During
this 10-15 year transition period that started in 2009 companies who don’t
adapt face mounting costs from missed opportunities and the need to adopt
multiple new technology solutions like viewability measurement, audience data
measurement, SSPs, new programmatic experts, sales training, etc.
Publishers are facing
challenges with RTB pricing, although recent reports I saw claim that RTB CPMs
are now leveling off or even increasing. Agency buyers have to be well
versed in modes of operating that they were not prepared for. So, it’s hard, but really I see this as an
upside. For the right buyer they can
make their way to be the star of an ad agency because they get ad tech. For established executives who don’t adapt
this could be their death knell. The
same holds true for those on the sell side who won’t or can’t wrap their head
around the programmatic approach.
Do
you think iHeart Media quite recent move to offer ad space programmatically is
a wise move given the medium continued decline in audience and ad revenue?
Of course. If the entire advertising business is looking
for more operationally efficient ways of buying air time of course iHeart Media
wants to be part of the evolution, especially if ad revenue is declining. I’m sure there are media agencies all across
the US who are also looking for those operational efficiencies and are pleading
with these traditional media companies to simply adopt even a very basic
programmatic approach.
That operational efficiency
helps the agencies too. I think this is a great move for iHeart Media because
it gives them a chance to maintain legitimacy, along with their new products
like the app and their live streaming stations, in the rise of a changing
marketplace. Streamlined operations,
easier access to buyers and an easier path to purchase all enhance the
opportunity for iHeart Media.
What
do you think of AOL’s announcement last year to launch ONE, a “single, unified
(programmatic) platform”?
I really like this solution
because it represents a big step toward differentiation of buyer
platforms. For a few years there has
been a general level of parity in the marketplace for buyers. DSPs have generally provided the same 90% of
functionality across the board. AOL One,
to me, represents diversification away from that parity and into new
grounds. Of course AOL is fundamentally
a seller of inventory, but they can certainly be a provider of great
opportunity for the right buyers who get onto their platform.
Also, it’s clear that the
unified measurement tech is being trotted out as a differentiation point across
multiple vendors, all of which use that functionality to differentiate
themselves. At the end of the day what
matters to the buyer is the effectiveness of the tech. If it works than that’s a win. If it is simply a tool to get buyers in the
door, and then sell them a parity product, or AOL’s inventory than that’s a
great job by AOL to sell inventory, but it doesn’t fulfill on the promise of
pushing the industry forward.
On the prognostication front
unified measurement is definitely a point of opportunity, and I’d say a
foregone conclusion. Unified DSP / DMP
dashboards on the buy side use technology for a unified consumer engagement
measurement. It’s a matter of making
this tech work with existing privacy challenges in place. Certainly Google can do this, but doesn’t
dare touch this space for fear or toppling an immensely profitable empire.
What
would do you think is the biggest misconception of Programmatic media buying?
I love how mystical people
think this space is. It’s not. As advertising experts we owe it to our
professional value to ensure that it’s not viewed simply as a great opportunity
for others to capitalize on. No. This is the knowledge that advertising
experts need to have.
What
do you see happening in the future of programmatic media buying?
Programmatic media goes
away. It’s called advertising. The amount of conversation about this space
is due to how new it is, and how much of a change it’s causing. At some point it because part and parcel of
advertising.
It integrates into the Internet
of Things, ingesting data from all the data points a human and its things
creates daily, and turns that information into actionable data about product /
service opportunities to be sold. The unification of data and attribution of
data across devices becomes a defacto way of doing business. Audience information
is infused into more traditional media and TV for ad decisioning and reporting. Buyers use a centralized
interface consisting of a DSP and DMP to ingest their entire advertising
infrastructure and deliver data that turns informs future planning decisions.
Workflow automation is picking
up importance. Publishers have to work with the same programmatic companies
that offer RTB to be available and pay for the opportunity of being able to
accept a direct deal. Agencies are
outsourcing part of the Automated Guaranteed buying process.
Similarly, companies will
realize they need a forward markets supply side platform. Current order
management solutions that already let sellers understand their available
inventory will become a competitive threat to traditional SSPs as Automated
Guarantee buys become more important.
These forward market SSPs will end up facilitating the most premium
programmatic opportunities (Automated Guarantees) just as RTB SSPs end up
approaching the same challenge from an RTB angle. Fundamentally though, it seems that
businesses who have historic success with enterprise guaranteed inventory will
have a leg up on RTB solutions who patch on to an Automated Guarantee module.
Local media and their agents
become very important. I’m building a
business called AudienceBoom.com (site is almost live) to help local business
leverage these immensely powerful platforms, along with social platforms, to outsmart
their competitors at spend levels that are scalable for the corner restaurant,
coffee shop or dog walking service.
And
finally, what advice would you give to someone thinking of getting into
programmatic buying?
Three months is like 9-12
months in other industries. Standstill
doesn’t exist, because once you’ve mastered a tech solution it either evolves
into a new version, or a new competitor creates a better solution altogether. Don’t be afraid to make decisions. This marketplace changes so quickly that bad
decisions are really just decisions that aren’t made.
Everything else can be
rectified if the outcome doesn’t match your expectations. Likewise, every perceived market leading
decision can be easily trumped in a few months by a new provider, so don’t stop. Business fundamentals are still critical: be
smart with your money, provide great customer service, maintain your integrity,
and build long term relationships.