Where Do We Go With Programmatic? Experts Weigh In

When it comes to programmatic, the conversation covered many of the issues that now face television in general. That is, the need for standardization (in the case of programmatic that means standard buying segments), a common language so that terms are clearly understood (the recently updated CIMM Lexicon addresses this issue) and the ability to get to scale cross-platform, especially with niche targets (there are no easy solutions as of yet and the landscape continues to change). What are the pressing needs to move programmatic and addressable advertising forward?  Here are some takeaways:

Standards are Important …

When we talk about creating standards, we need to specify the areas that benefit from standardization (such as terms and definitions) and those that can’t (such as CPMs and pricing).  “The lack of segmentation standards is the single biggest impediment in rolling programmatic TV out across the industry,” declared Eric Schmitt, Executive Vice President, Communications, TV and Media, Acxiom.  “How segments are defined is also a problem across advertisers. We are tackling this because we want segmentations to be actionable across industry.”

… But Not for Every Aspect of Programmatic or Addressable

“Audiences are different across MVPDs,” asserted Nick Troiano, CEO, Cadent. “New York is different than Iowa. Advertisers are used to buying across the nation but we price by specific markets, according to supply and demand.”

“Pricing depends on the category,” added Maria Mandel Dunsche, Vice President, Head of Marketing, AT&T AdWorks. “The price for the initial buy could have a higher CPM than for a linear buy. But the effective CPM can wind up lower.”

Scale Needs to Be Addressed

“Where does an addressable campaign fit in with the rest of the media?” asked Jonathan Bokor, Senior Vice President, Director of Advanced Media, MediaVest|Spark. “Standards are important. Do we base it on frequency or reach? We look at addressable as targeting. Scale is an issue.”

“We are placing media across platforms and work closely with our engineers to support addressable advertising,” said Cadent’s Troiano. “We recognize that, with any new medium, scale is fundamental. Fifty to 60 million homes are addressable today but they have different workflows. From a technological perspective, we unify and make it simple.”

Walled Gardens Have to Come Down

The walled gardens that exist across MVPDs, content owners such as networks and agencies are preventing the easy access, execution and calculation of addressable campaigns. As long as they exist, this will stunt growth. “The siloed and walled gardens that exist today have to come down,” Troiano stated. “We need to be able to execute campaign across operators. Until there are mechanisms for agencies or buyers to execute across operators, we won't get out of the small end of the funnel,” he added.

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