Programmatic: What are the new trends?

The spread of programmatic buying is undoubtedly one of the biggest changes in the buying and selling of advertising space in recent years. Initially limited to the online sector, programmatic buying has had such a resonance in recent years that it has revolutionized both traditional media such as radio, outdoor and TV, as well as the buying and selling processes of the entire sector, and the transition has been incredible. In 2012, around 5 billion dollars were invested in programmatic buying worldwide. In 2015, just three years later, the investment was around 38 billion dollars (Source: Zenith Optimedia/United Kingdom - Dec. 2015). It is a change that requires significant intellectual and organizational adaptability from market players, as a large part of the skills acquired to date are being put to the test, and to better understand these changes and their impact on companies, the TBS Group and the Lens Academy have commissioned a Europe-wide study. The study is intended to help research both the level of knowledge of advertisers about programmatic buying and to predict possible future strategies. Almost 1200 marketing/communication professionals from the countries in question took part in the study. Below is a brief overview.State of knowledgeThe study shows that 65% of European respondents are already familiar with the term programmatic buying. In particular, France, Spain and Germany are the countries with the highest level of knowledge, while in Switzerland, Benelux and Italy, expertise in the area of programmatic is still rather low.InvestmentsAmong the respondents, more than 81% of advertisers invest in programmatic buying and 32% say that more than 21% of their budget is spent on digital advertising via programmatic buying. As previously stated, online is not the only medium where programmatic buying is used. More than 74% of respondents who use programmatic buying to purchase their own digital campaigns are also willing to use this new technology to buy advertising space on radio, press and TV, and the interest of marketing, media and communication managers in this new technology is growing.Critical factorsThe factors that can be considered "critical" according to respondents because they could have a negative impact on programmatic buying of advertising space include the following: Inventory quality, lack of quality and media appropriateness guarantee.Business modelsThe technological developments based on programmatic buying have also brought about numerous changes to business models. Until now, there has been a tendency to outsource the purchase of advertising space to external media agencies. 56% of advertisers report that they are leaning towards a hybrid model (10%) or an in-house model (5%).ConclusionThe study shows that the majority of European advertisers are already familiar with programmatic buying and the associated developments. Advertisers are now ready to use this technology when buying advertising space on any medium. The factors that are still considered "critical" are the inventory quality, the lack of transparency and guarantee regarding the appropriateness of the medium. The increasing interest in programmatic buying can be seen as an indicator of an increasingly pronounced adaptability to change. Advertisers are increasingly tending to adopt both 100% in-house models and models that involve close collaboration between media agencies and advertisers.