‘Programmatic is the answer to a lot of problems in the world of advertising’

With the media revolution, programmatic advertising has also changed over the years. Brands now have a bunch of media choices, different cost levels and more. At the Real-time Programmatic Conference held in Bombay, industry leaders talked about how consumer insights, and data-driven and personalized ad campaigns can be leveraged through programmatic for maximum ROI.

In the session titled ‘Revolutionizing Programmatic Advertising: Crafting Loved Brands Through Premium, Branded Network and Emotion-Driven Engagement,’ the discussion was chaired by Dimpy Yadav, GM, Xaxis India, and consisted of Deepa Krishnan, Chief Marketing Officer, Starbucks, Aatika Ansari, Head of Media & Digital, Pernod Ricard, Prabhakar Tiwari, Chief Growth Officer, AngelOne, Pankaj Jain, Director, PWC and Mehernosh Pithawalla, Sr. Vice President and Head of Brand and Strategic Insights, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.

From challenges like duplication for advertisers to the challenge of third-party advertisers, all of it was discussed by the panel who discussed what is the best way for brands to navigate them in a programmatic world.

Prabhakar Tiwari during the discussion said programmatic was the answer to a lot of problems in the world of advertising, especially in a fintech category like AngelOne. From choosing which channel to focus on, to looking at reach, to campaign optimization, programmatic is the solution for it all.

Aatika Ansari spoke about the difference between the pre- and post-pandemic programmatic world. “I think it's important to differentiate the technology from the consumer habit. I think, pre pandemic we saw programmatic being really loosely used across only digital. Everything was programmatic. Suddenly throughout the process of the pandemic, you have programmatic television in the form of connected television, you have programmatic outdoor and many more such things or even maybe programmatic radio, on the verge of coming out. So, the whole thing was following the consumer and the customization it needs.”

Speaking about blending programmatic with creative for a better output, Deepa Krishnan says, “I unfortunately feel that today with programmatic, we are again becoming a push economy in advertising. Advertising was always supposed to be a pull economy where you're creating pull amongst your consumers with fantastic insights, which fantastic creative. So let programmatic not be the easy way out for you to forget some of the basics and fundamentals of advertising. So really to sum it up when we look at advertising or programmatic, we start by looking at who's the consumer we want to target. Why do we want to target that consumer? What's the business problem? Very sharply defining who that consumer is. And then, of course, this becomes a very powerful tool to get to the more of them."

Aatika further mentions a more wholesome way to use programmatic by the brands. “So programmatic is not just a technology that helps you customize. It's also to understand that technology into your creative, into the medium, and what's the reaction you're getting out of that medium. Preparing for that entire plan, knowing what are the kind of metrics you're going to track across each of them and then comparing them and using them for your next campaign saying, Okay, again, if I have to create a similar campaign, these would be the content pieces, these would be the mix that I would use programmatically or not programmatically, and this is the outcome. So, I think it helps you plan in a certain way, get your outcomes to a certain place. So I would actually think programmatic is a larger tech and ultimately, all consumer consuming mediums sort of come under it.”