Inside Programmatic 2020 with MG OMD

For over a decade ‘programmatic’ has been synonymous with lower funnel, web-based display advertising. In the next twelve months we will see a shift in how we define it. In fact, this has already begun.

Any media activation which is automated and powered by data should be considered “programmatic”

The concept and principles of programmatic are now informing all media channels but to differing extents.

Such is the ubiquity of programmatic in modern marketing, the term may become obsolete over the coming years.

The display and video market is up 13% YoY and is now a £15bn annual market in the UK (IAB). A staggering 90% of this investment is now bought programmatically as advertisers continue to adopt the benefits of automation and data targeting.

With the display and video market nearing saturation levels for programmatic media buying, growth in 2020 will start to be driven by so called “traditional media” – OOH, audio and connected TV.

Outdoor, is in the midst of exciting development. A number of Global’s OOH sites are now available to buy programmatically, via DAX (digital ad exchange) on Monday 17th Feb 2020. Addressable TV developments such as ITV’s Planet V & Sky Advance, as well as the ever-growing digital audio market (streaming up 14%), present tangible and future-facing opportunities for brands.

With the rapid digitisation of media channels and ongoing consumer fragmentation, regulation is only now beginning to catch up. There is a firm acceptance that the digital media industry now needs to view all operations through a consumer-privacy lens.

Following their 2019 report into Real-Time Bidding (RTB), The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has now ended its consultation period on the programmatic ecosystem and it’s use of consumer data. The ICO is expecting to see change in how consent is gathered, and data is applied within advertising. Any company practices that fall short of parameters set out in the GDPR, will be viewed dimly by the regulator. The time is now for businesses to get their houses in order, or else face steep fines.

In a world where data is the currency of the internet, browsers such as Apple’s Safari & Mozilla Firefox (who account for 33% of UK web traffic) have already made plays to restrict the use of 3rd Party cookies, in tracking online user behaviour. With Google’s recent announcement on the withdrawal from Chrome of 3rd party cookies by 2022, the industry now needs to develop alternatives to the cookie for targeting and attribution purposes.

Omnicom Media Group, MG OMD and Annalect are already consulting with brands on the impact on 3rd party attribution and regulatory compliance, but we urge clients to engage with their agency teams to learn more.

There are multiple stakeholders across the programmatic ecosystem, with it broadly split into the Buy Side (Advertisers, Agencies &DSP’s) and Sell Side (SSP’s & Publishers). Because no single entity has the contractual right for oversight across the industry, transparency of ad spend has not historically been comparable to direct buying.

Omnicom has made significant investment to address this issue with OMG Marketplace.

MG OMD will be taking the product to advertisers in April, but please get in contact to find out more in the meantime.

Listen to the best bits of our incredible panel below.