The programmatic and automated systems being developed for media buying and selling are, of course, the hottest topic in the industry today. What's being ignored in these stories is the fundamental shift in demand vs. supply. In the video advertising ecosystem, demand and supply have been relatively balanced for the past several decades, with demand keeping up with and often exceeding the rapid growth of video advertising supply, allowing for cost inflation. The role of revenue officers of leading TV media companies has been demand management, and the responsibility of media buyers has been to manage client expectations and explain TV realities to questioning client procurement officers who are trained in supply-chain economics. These responsibilities and realities will shift dramatically in the next several years as the growth of video ad inventory supply will outpace demand by a two-to-one ratio, dramatically altering the historic dynamics of the industry. Quite simply, marketers will exploit the increasing cost efficiencies of legacy advertising models and simultaneously expand their focus on implementation of below-the-line tactics through digital media applications.
Media's Most Critical Challenge: Over-Supply
