Indie Agencies, Mid-Market Brands & Multi-Channel Advertising Are A Perfect Love Triangle

Caroline Campbell, vice president of sales APAC, at StackAdapt, explains why new programmatic advertising platforms are delivering independent agencies and mid-market brands the opportunity to deliver cost-effective commercial messages across any media platform.

Programmatic advertising has previously been the domain of large holding company agencies as they have had the financial muscle to invest in trading teams and new technology.

However, StackAdapt’s buy-side platform is levelling the playing field for a host of agencies in the mid-market. These agencies now also have access to AI-based media buying software tools that generate performance for brands, across every available channel.

Caroline Campbell, vice president of sales APAC, StackAdapt

These channels include fast-growing media formats such as connected TV (CTV), digital out-of-home (DOOH) and in-game advertising, which all deliver new ways for brands to reach consumers and deliver effective creative at the right time and in the right place. A key feature of StackAdapt’s offering is that its self-service platform takes a no contracts and no minimum spend approach to any brand.

This positioning is opening up programmatic advertising to a whole raft of new brands and mid-market agencies.

For sure, programmatic advertising can deliver outsize advantages to brands who do it right.

For example, rather than guessing who might see your large-format billboards or TV spots, programmatic demand-side platforms can expose brands to the right audiences, at the right price and at the right time across DOOH, in-game, CTV and online video. Brands need to plan and act across multiple platforms because that is what consumers are doing, every day.

A multi-channel strategy is key in today’s digital landscape because consumers are active across various channels and devices. All brands should be shifting toward a multi-channel media mix to ensure that they effectively reach their target audience across platforms.

A multi-channel strategy enables advertisers to optimise their targeting so that it mimics the customer journey, which typically doesn’t stay confined to one channel. With a holistic targeting strategy, advertisers are able to reach their desired audience where they are: everywhere.

A multi-channel strategy also brings the benefit of wider visibility for a brand. The more presence a brand has on various channels, the more visible that brand, its products and its services are.

By creating a cohesive message across the channels that a brand appears on, advertisers can consistently remind users about their offerings, which will shift them closer toward conversion. Plus, there’s the added benefit of building more brand awareness and brand personality.

A survey by StackAdapt and Advertiser Perceptions found that half of advertisers see extended reach, increased brand awareness and ad engagement, and the ability to reach consumers on their preferred channel as top multi-channel benefits. Video is essential for driving awareness, which makes it an ideal medium to include in any multi-channel campaign.

Video ads can create an emotional connection between brands and consumers, capturing undivided attention and providing an opportunity to educate the audience, build brand awareness, and develop trust.

Furthermore, while video is powerful on its own, it can also be easily re-purposed for social campaigns, stills from the content can be used for display, and it can even be leveraged as a native ad for education.

There are other benefits to taking a multichannel approach. Reaching customers where they are with a multi-channel strategy also increases the likelihood of engagement. When a brand is present on various channels, customers don’t have to scramble to find the brand, which helps build customer loyalty.

A major benefit of a multi-channel strategy is that it covers the entire funnel. By creating multiple points of contact for the target audience, advertisers create more opportunities for acquisition.

That’s not all. While AI has become the thing to talk about in the worlds of advertising and marketing, StackAdapt was built from its inception with machine learning and AI at the heart of the platform.

As a result, the campaigns you can run with StackAdapt will receive industry-leading targeting which will lead to better results. After all, ads placed within the right context can lead to between 4-10 times more user engagement than other ads.

StackAdapt’s AI tools help your campaigns reach the right audience at the right time. The company has a proprietary contextual targeting feature, Page Context AI, that allows agencies to place ads next to the right content. For example, a coffee brand could have an ad placed next to a search about coffee shops — giving the brand quick exposure to people in the frame of mind to buy coffee.

While you might hear in some quarters that a fragmenting media landscape makes life harder for media buyers and brands, an effective self-serve platform combined with a multi-channel approach, and AI-based tools, can deliver superior performance for brands, no matter their size.

For more information on StackAdapt, visit www.stackadapt.com.