The big messages from the Big Apple’s Advertising Week event
This week is Advertising Week in NYC. For those of you in Europe who have not been able to jump on a flight to sip cocktails in the Big Apple, two big themes have emerged so far (which won’t surprise you): programmatic and native.
First, programmatic. It’s the hottest topic around, so much so that the Wall Street Journal has dubbed the event ‘Programmatic Advertising Week’. Automated digital ad spend is set to increase 52 per cent this year to $21bn globally, according to Interpublic Group’s research arm Magna Global, and the main areas of growth are likely to be TV and mobile. Programmatic TV will account for 5 per cent of buying in 2015, claimed a panel made up of executives from publisher AOL and agencies Havas, Carat and Initiative.
But the TV networks are cautious. This week, NBC Universal launched NBCUx, a small-scale programmatic platform offering its online display, mobile and video inventory. But while advertisers might love to see primetime TV inventory traded through an open digital platform, the networks won’t be so keen. They want to sell their most premium, desirable inventory directly to top brands rather than risk any commoditisation.
Ultimately, however, the goals in programmatic trading and measurement on any device, platform or network must stay true to overall marketing strategy. Kristian Magel at Initiative saying that the ultimate goal is to be able to measure “TV, digital and mobile with one source that’s as accurate as possible”.
Now let’s look at native. While our own Marketing Week research claims that a majority of marketers believe that native advertising is just a subset of content marketing, interest in it continues to rise. Earlier this week, Universal announced it would allow brands to insert themselves into music videos if relevant.
Heineken revealed at an Advertising Week panel session on Monday that it planned to serve ads that fit the look and feel of individual apps and sites after native posts for its Desperados beer sparked a 23 per cent rise in brand awareness. Its senior media director Ron Amram says the native campaign is now “100 per cent mobile focused”.
The event is not yet over and lots of other themes are still to come, but programmatic and native look set to dominate. Meanwhile, if you want to know what these things mean for you, make sure you join us at two of our major events this year: our Festival of Marketing takes place on November 12/13, giving access to over 150 speakers from brands including Facebook and Lego; awards; training and much more. Also, our Programmatic Marketing event – ‘Get With the Programmatic’ in association with AppNexus – takes place on 4 December. See MarketingWeek.co.uk/Programmatic and FestivalofMarketing.com for more details.
