Thus far, the rise of automated, “programmatic” online ad-trading techniques has come with the rise of open ad exchanges. But GroupM, parent of the WPP media agencies, looks set to redefined “programmatic” as merely new “pipes” through which to do business with old partners.
“By the end of this year, we don’t want any of our brands to buy in open exchange – we don’t see that it’s necessary,” GroupM chief digital investment officer for north American, Ari Bluman, tells Beet.TV. “We want to do all private marketplace deals – 100% of programmatic will be private deals.
“Publishers have lost potentially a lot of spend that’s gone to run-of-exchange. They’re looking at this as an opportunity to get that money back.
“That is our drive – to openly buy direct from publisher. All the brands we’re speaking to are very excited about that. It’s a lot of setup work. It costs too much money to run digital campaigns – we need to ease that and that’s what ‘programmatic’ means to us.”
Bluman was a panelist at the Beet.TV Video Ad Fraud Summit where we sat down with him. The event was sponsored by comScore, Innovid and TubeMogul. More video from the event can be found here.
