Programmatic Is Not the Future, Insights Are

If we want to talk about the future of programmatic, we need to get away from the jargon and obfuscation and start by agreeing on something that’s actually true about it – programmatic is really just a means to an end.

The end we’re seeking? It is insight. We want the insight that marketing data promise.

This goal is within our reach. Data from programmatic already drives analytics, which drive returns and campaign success. These analytics are also the pathway to deeper data-driven insights, however, and these insights will be our roadmap to the future of programmatic on new levels. The following sections take us into the steps that can get us even closer to the end goal of programmatic, industry-wide.

The Power of Data: Best Outcomes Thrive on Insights

Programmatic creates a resource, data, and at unprecedented levels – virtually every decision-making process in marketing comes down to data. The data management platform is about data.

For example, Kraft Heinz has increased its marketing returns as much as 200% through its data-driven efforts.

The brand, graced with upwards of one billion online-consumer recipe interactions to work with, turned to data analytics to understand how to bring millennials to its online content. Centralizing, storing, and connecting its consumer profiles, Kraft Heinz nudged its food engagements in new directions – tweaking content and tone for more immersive recipe experiences that first- and third-party data showed millennials would love.

Refined and evolving strategies – insights into what worked, and (crucially) why – meant Kraft Heinz avoided wasteful approaches, the kind we all want to cut from marketing programs. The company deployed a campaign based on insights about its customers, it played through to the end goal, and the campaign worked.

Omnichannel: Powering the Future of Insight

If we are going to position insights as the end goal of programmatic tech for our industry, then we must also establish powerful pathways to get there. Our road, it turns out, has a name: omnichannel.

As an industry, we are on the move – data-forward brands are transitioning campaigns from specialist marketing to omnichannel holistic programs, tapping technology’s ability to achieve new insights across multiple device types in complementary ways. And, in the 360-degree omnichannel moment that exists around us lie key insights to users’ preferences.

If data shows us their affinities – not just for ads but for all kinds of content – then we can target better. We can dovetail our inventory with what we gather about consumer interests and lifestyles and overall we can do so in modular, discrete ways across device types.

When we do this, we get to skip the usual wasteful traps – repeating a desktop video on the same consumer’s tablet, for example. Now we’re talking the future of insightful programmatic.

And, we are on the cusp of understanding not only what is working but also why it works.

Data is the resource; insights are the end goal that data analytics help us achieve. A major indicator that we’re reaching that end goal is when we have our “why” moments — when we understand not only what works, but how it works, why it works, and that it will likely work again.

The end goal of insight-rich marketing further suggests a time when we can “automagically” know the next best action for a marketer to take. Beyond reacting to past information, insights become predictive and even automated under our omnichannel insights model.

This is a technological mission; it is one fueled by building up our own technical knowledge and turning to the deep benches that the industry and all its partners bring to bear. It is a mission worthy of the next five years – and beyond – one that turns on the programmatic technology of today leading us to a future fueled by the data-driven insights of tomorrow.

Read more of Bruce’s thoughts on the programmatic space by downloading this free eBook.

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.

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