LONDON – Programmatic buying is growing quickly in the United Kingdom and beginning to take hold not only in display but in online video as well, says Nicholas Bidon, UK Managing Director Xaxis.
About 12 percent of ad spend in the UK in 2012 came from programmatic buying and this sector of the market is on track to double year over year, he says. “We are seeing this as brands try to reach their audiences at scale and they are leveraging the power of data to inform their media buying,” Bidon tells us. The growth is spread across industries and key advertisers relying on programmatic include Barclay’s Card, Sky, Ford, Mazda and others. “It allows brands to find their true audience and eliminate some of the waste in years past.”
Xaxis also looks closely at attribution models and the value of different channels whether social, search, display or video. Programmatic buying is beginning to take hold in online video, though the inventory is more concentrated in the hands of a few players at the moment, he says. We spoke with Bidon at the FT Digital Media Conference in London last week.
