Our 10x10 series explores a new essential topic in digital media each month. This month, we dive into one of the most exciting and important elements of programmatic media: Artificial Intelligence. 

We’ve asked the people behind our proprietary AI technology, Copilot, to share their behind-the-scenes insights about data visualization, data science, academic research, analytical insights, and more.

So far this month, Tobias Sutters, a Copilot Senior Product Manager, shared a behind-the-scenes story into the team’s creation of a new AI insights package and Katherine Mello, a Copilot Software Engineer, showed us how her team integrated the principles of color theory into a new approach to data visualization.

Now, in a special audio and video episode of The People of Programmatic Podcast, we hear from five Copilot crew members about the academic research, review, and writing that goes on behind the scenes as part of their ongoing efforts to stay on the leading edge of AI technology in digital media. 

The discussion also covers the team’s experiences in data science, data visualization, and organizing journal clubs, as well as which modern examples of AI in action have inspired them.

To date, the Copilot team has published three journals:

1. Dynamic Bidding Strategies with Multivariate Feedback Control for Multiple Goals in Display Advertising by Michael Tashman, Jiayi Xie, John Hoffman, Lee Winikor, Rouzbeh Gerami
2. Online and Scalable Model Selection with Multi-Armed Bandit by Jiayi Xie, Michael Tashman, John Hoffman, Lee Winikor, Rouzbeh Gerami
3. Techniques Toward Optimizing Viewability in RTB Ad Campaigns Using Reinforcement Learning by Michael Tashman, Jiayi Xie, John Hoffman, Lee Winikor, Rouzbeh Gerami, Atefeh Morsali, and Fengdan Ye

And they have one patent pending titled “Double Blind Learning Insight Interface Apparatus, Methods and Systems” which describes the unique new way that the Copilot Insights platform delivers real-time updates and insights through a user-friendly interface guided by machine learning.

Featured in this episode:

• Jiayi Xie, Senior Data Scientist
• Rouzbeh Gerami, Head of Data Science
• Sambhav Jain, Senior Designer, Data Visualization
• Katherine Mello, Software Engineer, Visualizations
• HOST - Kelly Mergenthaler, Senior Product Marketing Manager

Listen to episode five of The People of Programmatic Podcast, “The Academics Behind AI,” below:

Watch the video version of episode five of The People of Programmatic Podcast, “The Academics Behind AI,” here:

The report uncovered some key insights including:

• 80% of marketers were wholly or partly judged by their contribution to strategic business goals.
• 70% said that their performance targets were not defined with reference to those strategic business goals.
• 51% say that their ability to be fully accountable was held back by a lack of data and analytical skills in the marketing department.

In the wake of this report, we hosted a roundtable with key media and advertising leaders to discuss the findings and this is what we found out.
1. If you’re not accountable, then you’re a cost
It sounds brutal but it’s a reality. According to our report, 60% of marketers feel that marketing needs to make a better contribution to the organisation’s strategic goals. Our roundtable participants agreed that it was often difficult to show a concrete link between marketing activities and the company’s strategic goals. Incorporating the company strategy into your plans is key in establishing marketing’s value to a business.
2. Let the data speak
One marketer at the roundtable gave the example of a product that wasn’t selling as well as senior management expected. They were convinced that it was related to media spend. But when they did the analysis, they learned it was actually product price that was inhibiting sales. Leverage your data to determine the right strategy.
3. Package your marketing plan
“Most other departments have a much more limited audience than we do in marketing,” explained one of our participants. “We have to have a broad insight into the whole of the rest of the business — sales, engineering, finance, you name it — and that gives us a very complex structure. That puts a big responsibility on us to understand and internalise the practices and priorities of all those other teams and then package that all together in the marketing plan. Again, everyone in the company will have their opinion. In the end, the data is the best guide.”
4. Push back
Reporting return on investment is never straightforward especially in marketing and 55% of the marketers surveyed say that their marketing platforms are fragmented and do not offer a comprehensive overview of tactical marketing investments. “One of our markets has a well-developed attribution model,” explained a retail expert. “Our board wants it rolled out to all other territories, right now. But we have had to push back, explaining that we need to customise the model for each market we bring it to, or it won’t work.”
5. Have a voice at the table
“There is an increasing demand for marketing people who not only have all the soft skills,” explained one of the participants, “but who also understand the data, the analytics, and the technology that underpins it all. Everyone is searching for that person who can do it all.  They’re like some sort of marketing unicorn. But we really need them. We need people in marketing, and in senior leadership who can drive change.”
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