Page 16 - AdNews Magazine Jul-Aug 2020

Agenda
when it would finally remove third-party cookies.
Back at home in Australia, amid the nation’s bushfire cri- sis, local watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had begun an inquiry into the “opaque” world of adtech.
Add to the mix, a global pan- demic which forced people indoors and into isolation, the industry had been riding the rollercoaster in the first half.
With all of this change and more people in front of screens and relying on the digital world than ever before, it has been pro- grammatic’s year to shine.
James Bayes, general man- ager for Australia and New Zealand at The Trade Desk, says the beauty of programmatic is its flexibility - something that has been realised more by adver- tisers in the wake of COVID-19.
“When this [pandemic] first started, programmatic was probably hit harder and faster in the first week or two than some other channels just because of its strength which are flexibility and agility,” Bayes says.
“It was quicker and easier to pull money out of program- matic than it was to pull out of some other media with longer cancellation deadlines.
“The reverse of that is that programmatic has been able to bounce back faster and sharper than some other channels. It is flexible. You can make a deci- sion and be active an hour later if you’ve got creative.
“You can draw a very clear connection between the invest- ment decisions that you’re mak- ing and the performance that is driving your business.”
The pandemic led to market- ing messages becoming irrele- vant overnight. In America, one cruise ship company had a com- mercial running through a news program that talked about how cruise ships were a breeding ground for the virus.
Samuel Tan, senior director of market development at Xandr, says it is much easier for a brand to pull an ad like this when bought programmatically.
“Programmatic has the ability to respond to a shift in consumer [behavioural] patterns,” Tan says.
While he doesn’t believe brands will make a complete move to 100% programmatic, he does think this period has been an opportunity to showcase its power and agility.
“I do think they will realise how powerful it can be to have a really great understanding of how it works and how it complements the other things that they’re doing,” he says.
“It’s not just the leftover dollars that they put to programmatic as a way to make the last touch or that final conversation. They will probably see that programmatic can be a really important part of the overall mix in terms of the customer journey.”
A maturing market
Total online advertising growth slowed in the first quarter of 2020 to year-on-year growth of 3.8%, according to the IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER).
The report, compiled by PwC, captures data until March 30. It reflects the traumatic summer season of bushfires and drought, as well as the traditional post Christmas decline, but only includes a couple of weeks when the country was seriously impacted by COVID-19 lockdown.
The future of media buyers
As programmatic continues to rise in popularity across different media, AdNews asked media agencies how the role of media buyers will change in the coming years.
Publicis Media Exchange commercial director performance Brooke Aniseko The role of media buyers will continue to evolve considerably in the coming years, as the popularity of programmatic
rises. With greater access to,
and advances in, data and technology across all channels, media buyers will increasingly need to have a more holistic approach to offline and online. Ultimately, I think media buyers will be in an enviable position for their cross-channel knowledge and expertise, and they will be invaluable in providing strategic recommendations to clients.
Matterkind Australia
CEO Clay Gill
Funnily enough the more things change the more they will stay the same. Buyers will need to be versed in analysing data and know how
to successfully bid for audiences’ attention. They will also need
to regularly upskill their adtech knowledge and buying platform application skills every six months. But... what remains the same is a media buyer’s understanding of the fundamental capabilities of each media channel. What experience does it offer the consumer and how can it amplify the media strategy and brand messages advertisers want to deliver.
MediaCom national head of digital Minsun Collier Working towards campaign objectives will be the same but new skills will be required. Media buyers will be operating in real-time and genuinely trading the marketplace, so they’ll make decisions faster and be more agile. It will be more data driven. I believe the skills will merge roles of media buyers will become outcome focused, so they will be cross channel and channel neutral. Using both their left and right brain, technically capable
yet strategic. They will be a bit like traffic controllers, seeing three dimensionally, thinking how they can make campaigns work.