How Turn is Building the Omnichannel Future

As I wrote in my last blog post, I was motivated to join Turn because I see omnichannel as the ultimate future for marketing – a data-driven approach that enables marketers to reach consumers seamlessly, consistently and effectively no matter what device or channel. Now let me explain exactly what that means, and how we’re working to build that future at Turn.

As digital emerged, it brought the promise of true one-to-one marketing – an advertiser’s dream. Twenty years into digital, we’ve not yet achieved that. One reason is that the digital landscape is extremely fragmented, and historically it’s been very difficult to buy in digital. Partly this was due to concentrations of users on a few sites that you had to buy directly, and partly because historically marketers needed to use different platforms to buy on different channels. Specialists, “point solutions” in mobile, video, etc. were needed due to the newness and complexity of these channels. The industry was tackling big, complicated problems, and at the time it made sense to focus on a specific piece of the puzzle and get that right.

But it’s become increasingly clear that a marketer needs the whole puzzle to fit together. Ultimately, I believe that a marketer wants to buy me, Bruce, online across all channels, and wants to have a coherent conversation. What does that mean in real life? Don’t show Bruce an ad for a pair of sneakers that he just bought. Don’t show Bruce the exact same ad on a mobile device that you’ve showed him five times on his desktop. If Bruce has already watched the video, what’s the next logical message to reach him with, and where? Just like in real life, for this conversation to make any sense it has to be sequenced – each piece has to connect with the piece that came before it and the one that comes after.

Marketers want a full view of the consumer journey and the ability to connect with consumers across that entire journey. That is how we get closer to one-to-one digital marketing – enabling coherent, consistent conversation across all channels in the market. As the consumer journey gets more and more complex, technology is the only solution. To have this coordinated conversation, your technology needs to be omnichannel, not divided between specialists. And the world is only becoming more fragmented – the number of connected devices at CES alone certainly proved that – do you really want to be working with 12 different specialists?

A specialist/point-solution approach does not ultimately serve marketers. The efficiencies, insights and control that marketers gain by taking an omnichannel approach far outweigh channel-specific competitive advantages. We are already seeing a trend of “de-specialization” in this industry, because marketers are increasingly demanding access to a holistic view of their audiences and the conversations they have with them.

So here’s what we’re working on at Turn. First of all, while we have a strong omnichannel product already, a major initiative this year is further developing and building a richer, more robust video product that will allow us to continue to deliver on this vision. Secondly, we are successfully putting cross-device capabilities to use, helping marketers understand the interactions between devices and channels, analyze behaviors and reach consumers in consistent and engaging campaigns.

Finally, part of the point of omnichannel is to make life easier for marketers, simplifying the complex landscape of channels and buying platforms and so on. To that end, we are heavily prioritizing usability within our platform. We also understand that buying video is different than buying native, for example, and will be focusing on UI solutions to streamline these processes. [To learn more about some of the work of our UI team, check out these posts on how we built a system that adapts to our users’ requirements].

As consumers evolve and engage with devices and screens in innumerable ways we never imagined at the dawn of digital, it is imperative that marketing – and the technology providers who enable it – keep pace. I’m excited to be building a company that is helping marketers understand the new customer journey and win the omnichannel future.

About Amobee

Founded in 2005, Amobee is an advertising platform that understands how people consume content. Our goal is to optimize outcomes for advertisers and media companies, while providing a better consumer experience. Through our platform, we help customers further their audience development, optimize their cross channel performance across all TV, connected TV, and digital media, and drive new customer growth through detailed analytics and reporting. Amobee is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tremor International, a collection of brands built to unite creativity, data and technology across the open internet.

If you’re curious to learn more, watch the on-demand demo or take a deep dive into our Research & Insights section where you can find recent webinars on-demand, media plan insights & activation templates, and more data-driven content. If you’re ready to take the next step into a sustainable, consumer-first advertising future, contact us today.