In this guest post, Rocket Fuel’s ANZ country manager Mailee Creacy (pictured below), says programmatic advertising is finally starting to fulfil its promise and it should prove a boon for savvy brands…
It is a remarkable time for digital advertising in Australia, with forecasts of over $1 billion being traded programmatically over the next 12 months. Today, digital allows brands to generate interest in their products, win new customers and earn advocates by connecting with the right audiences in the moments that matter most.
Aspirationally, brands want to be responsive to their audience in real-time, with relevant messaging and impactful creative. Increasingly these pursuits are being reached through programmatic buying.
While programmatic advertising has largely been synonymous with Direct Response (DR), brands have started to realise that the technology can help personalise mass reach and therefore be a very effective tool in building a brand.
Savvy brands are beginning to realise that DR and branding initiatives are not independent variables — they’re mutually dependent. There are now clear, demonstrable links between brand uplift and direct response performance.
Building brands has long been the domain of above-the-line advertising, but the feedback loop on these traditional techniques has always been slow and imprecise. Digital advancements in areas such as brand measurement, inventory quality, and creative flexibility have paved the way for programmatic brand campaigns. Another major recent advancement has been the ability to measure and buy against viewability metrics.
Marketing professionals are under increased pressure to efficiently and effectively run highly relevant, creative, responsive and measurable brand campaigns, at scale.
With continued growth of video and other high-impact rich media creative formats through programmatic channels, traditional brand advertisers now have immersive and expressive formats to tell their stories and showcase their products. Interactive ads are an incredibly effective tool for branding. One primary benefit of interactive ads is the fact that users don’t have to leave the site they’re on to interact with the ad unit, which means they’re more likely to engage.
So programmatic has finally got a seat at the adults’ table, as the technology has created a way for brands to establish deeper connections with their audiences in this increasingly fragmented digital world. The challenge and opportunity for brands is to make the most of each moment, across every channel and any screen.
