Will 2019 be the year we programmatise traditional channels?

Source Marketing Interactive | January 3, 2019

Allaying fears around programmatic
Sean O’Brien, CEO of Posterscope APAC, explains that currently the air around programmatic, in general, needs to be cleared and there should ideally not be a fear surrounding programmatic. Advertisers and agencies should explore how all parties can help one another, he says. This is to create a programmatic ecosystem which is brand-safe and adds value.
Specifically for programmatic OOH, clients have yet to approach it with concerns as the opportunity “has not been realised on a large enough scale to warrant concern”.
In fact, clients are often more excited about the possibilities programmatic can bring to a mass medium such as OOH.

One of the huge benefits of OOH is being located in a very public and physical environment, eliminating most common issues of brand safety or ad fraud.

This has demonstrated how digital has enabled rather than disrupted the medium.
“It is not necessarily the case that programmatic in traditional channels needs to follow the digital mould, in fact there is a big opportunity to learn from the past and take what works well,” O’Brien says. The industry also needs to improve on areas which have added less value and create an environment that is truly more efficient and effective for all sides of the equation.
Agreeing with O’Brien, Woolfrey says media owners should engage with clients and provide insights and transparency into the technology and the data that is being leveraged.
“Our view is that you must carefully invest in the best advertising and marketing technology to ensure you keep pace with the market,” Woolfrey says. This means connecting to programmatic media buying engines that have the sophistication to add advanced TV buying and OOH to the mix.
Divya Acharya, director of product for APAC at Xaxis, says that agencies should lead the industry conversation around how the lines between traditional and digital are merging, and to move away from planning in silos. Agencies and marketers should play a pivotal role in educating clients on the opportunities to bridge the current gaps between the traditional media, buying and planning currencies and programmatic media.
Damien Crittenden, vice-president of client strategy for APAC at Xaxis, adds that agencies must continue to push measurement partners and media owners to improve access to quality data.
Mark Halliday, CEO of performance at Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific, adds that eventually advertisers will start to have the ability to control/change out ads based on time, date,weather and sport results. “The challenge for this is how additional data can be captured through mobile devices, thereby enhancing the audience offerings through the ability to profile,” he says,