Creativity was once thought of as the heart and soul of advertising, but the rise of programmatic and the obsession with real-time bidding and targeting has made it nearly impossible to deliver a powerful piece of creative that really stands out online.

In principle, it’s simple: advertisers pick what types of people they want to reach online, set parameters around what they’re willing to spend, and then let algorithm-powered software automatically buy their ads for them in live auctions, so they get the best possible price.

But here’s the problem with that.

If an advertiser or a brand wants to push an ad through the programmatic pipes, the ad needs to fit a standard model. That way the ad can actually go through the complex, automated process and end up on a webpage.

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