Does Programmatic Creativity Show the Future of Advertising?
Following the development of programmatic, the technology that has virtually automated the entire process of buying advertising space, the time has now come for programmatic creativity. In his guest article, Pierre Berendes shows that the fundamentally antinomic combination of these two terms holds great potential for advertisers.
Twenty years ago, only one screen - the television - was enough to reach consumers. Now we juggle between mobile, desktop and tablets. Audiences, being less linear, spread their attention across multiple screens, which means brands have to constantly adapt their messages. This is where programmatic comes into play.
The only problem is that, for reasons of time and simplicity, the message usually reaches all audiences on all supports in the same form. Creativity is often limited to a small or large rectangle. Under these circumstances, it is not easy to reach the right audience. Creativity can compensate for this shortcoming.
This new concept refers to the use of technologies that accelerate, automate and multiply the possibilities for banner production. With this approach, it is now possible to handle both the production and optimization of the message simultaneously. By combining media and creativity, brands can make their messages more informative, exciting and engaging.
The announced end of the advertising banner
In particular, programmatic creativity will make it possible to segment the audience into several groups and address them with personalized messages. No more the same banner for everyone!
And thanks to the multiplication of formats, it will also be possible to create different message variants. This innovation enables a new dialog between brands and their consumers. The messages are automatically and dynamically adapted to the different channels and screens by sharing targeting options (age, language, location, interests, ...) and integrating elements in mobile banners, depending on the functionality of the support (touch screen, localization, call option).
In order to design these increasingly sophisticated creations, data is essential. This makes it possible to identify the right message to send to a specific target group. With this new technology, messages can be created automatically on a large scale and tested in different variants.
Thousands of possible variants customized in real time!
In concrete terms, the designer can produce 20 formats simultaneously: a real time-saver. Variations are then defined for each target group: localized advertising, differentiated product offerings or different points of contact. With real-time results, brands can make changes very quickly. However, the aim is to ensure that 99% of the messages broadcast are variations of the original offer.
Let's assume, for example, that a tourist office wants to appeal to winter sports enthusiasts. Some will be alpine skiers, others will prefer snowshoeing, wellness or just the sun terrace! With Programmatic Creativity, several variants of the same message can be created and tested until the one is found that works best depending on the target group, the bidding level of the advertising space, the frequency or the broadcasting website.
It is also possible to present "novelties" by using a rotation, sequencing or customization of the message in real time. This means that (almost) every user can be addressed individually.
What are the challenges for successful programmatic creativity?
To achieve this, brands need to integrate two complementary technologies into their programmatic campaigns: the CMP (Creative Management Platform), which manages the banner production process, and the DCO (Dynamic Creative Optimization), which optimizes banners based on machine learning. While DCO is seen as a technology to create thousands of banner variants, the CMP also benefits from power in UX and design based on powerful tools such as Google Studio.
The main obstacle to the upswing in the use of programmatic creativity is clearly the amount of resources available for this. On average, a brand plans one photo shoot per season, i.e. a maximum of four per year. However, five times this amount of material is needed to develop enough variants. In fact, first-party data is only used for 4 percent of campaigns; 68 percent of campaigns are set up without targeting data. A pity, really, as the improvement in performance with programmatic creativity is estimated at +30 percent.
In addition, the lack of synchronization between the producers of the messages, the media buyers and the data analysts is the real challenge with programmatic creativity.
For the effect to be fully realized, the walls between these different players in the advertising channel must come down. Advertisers also need to change their perception. Instead of talking about visible impressions, they should focus more on recognition. Today, there is more and more talk about engagement or brand recall - that is already a good start!
* Pierre Berendes is Managing Director of Gamned! Switzerland.
