A Day in The Programmatic Life

With the help of a growing ecosystem of connected devices, our accuracy in reaching the right person at the right time has never been better. With these devices turning every user action into data, advertisers will have incredible insight into the needs and desires of consumers. Imagine the significance of a coffee shop having the ability to send messages or coupons based on sleep patterns to those who didn’t sleep well. This is what we call “The Programmatic Life” -- using data created by a user through all of their connected devices to serve a targeted message.

Here’s the catch: In order for marketers to gain access to a sophisticated marketing system such as The Programmatic Life, it must overcome three hurdles: adoption, scale and a value exchange.

Driving higher adoption of devices in the connected ecosystem is key to ensuring user privacy protection. For marketers to responsibly use this wealth of device data, it has to reach a level where we can protect and mask user PII (Personally Identifiable Information). With connected devices increasing the information we have about each user, a larger pool of users will be necessary to maintain non-identifiable information.

Once we can protect PII, the market will need to reach a scale where marketing to distinct individuals becomes viable for advertisers. The good news for advertisers is that the data used to power The Programmatic Life won’t be confined by the specific device or app used to collect it. Both Apple and Google have launched centralized data hubs to unify fitness and smart home data from various devices all tracking the same metrics. Because the data is centralized to an OS level as opposed to a device level, The Programmatic Life will scale quickly.

The benefits that The Programmatic Life promises to advertisers are obvious, however users will also have to find value in the connected device ecosystem to accept advertisements in exchange for their data. All user-based ad platforms have faced the value exchange challenge. Successful brands will wait until the value exchange of The Programmatic Life is established or they could face potential backlash.

Now the question is when The Programmatic Life will become reality. GroupM Next took a deep dive into each of these three hurdles, analyzing and forecasting when the market will overcome each one. Our analysis suggests The Programmatic Life will begin in 2018. This means that over the next three years, marketers should ensure they are ready to plug into this new level of marketing sophistication. While technology is ready to collect this data today, the market and its users are not quite there. However, with the growth of programmatic and connected devices, it will be here before you know it.

For more insight into The Programmatic Life and our analysis of when it will become reality, visitGroupMNext.com.

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