By Robin Steinberg, SVP, Advertiser Solutions at PubMatic
Media buyers face a constant barrage of decisions regarding inventory, partners, formats, budgets, and more—choices that ultimately come to define brands and their relationships with customers. But in a fast-paced industry, marketers that still think in “either, or” terms are limiting growth opportunities.
Today, our industry is riddled with false dichotomies, but the most innovative marketers aren’t choosing; they’re leveraging integrated strategies to get the best of both worlds. After all, thinking in binary ways only leaves dollars on the table. The true way to transform the future of digital advertising is by leaning into a “yes, and” approach and building integrated strategies.
Here are three key areas where this paradigm shift can give you a competitive advantage.
Tech and Supply
Once upon a time, advertising decisions were based almost entirely on supply quality. Was the inventory being purchased likely to generate the advertiser’s desired outcomes? Whether it was a prime-time TV spot or a half-page ad in a reputable newspaper, the quality of the content that advertising supported, and the relationship of the media outlet with its audience, was of paramount importance.
Along came digital and its many channels, and a new type of decision-making was introduced—one guided primarily by the capabilities of a company’s technology vs. the quality of the supply it represented. Could a company’s technology generate the advertiser’s desired outcomes by virtue of its audience targeting and access?
In reality, supply quality never stopped mattering, regardless of the channel. The challenge was that, particularly in the early days of ad tech, quality was often obscured from the advertiser’s view. These days, that doesn’t have to be—and shouldn’t be—the case. Today’s leading platforms are built with transparency and control in mind; black boxes need not apply.
Ad tech is still crucial, but it’s often commoditized. If advertisers are choosing partners based on tech alone, without regard for the quality of the supply they bring to the table, they’re not setting themselves up for sustainable success. A modern approach to digital advertising should focus on supply quality first and foremost, and then evaluate a company’s ability to curate that supply to meet its specific goals.
Performance and Branding
The marketing funnel has evolved. Contrary to rumors, it hasn’t fully collapsed—but there are definite areas where it has caved in, bringing upper-funnel awareness initiatives into alignment with lower-funnel conversion tactics. This convergence—the idea that certain media buys can drive notable impact across a wide variety of KPIs and consumer journey stages—is one of the most promising forces transforming advertising today. However, it also requires a realignment of marketing teams and resources to fully unlock and understand the benefits of this paradigm shift.
As traditional and digital channels evolve, the lines among them are blurring, if not altogether vanishing. For example, as commerce media has matured, the channel has rapidly transformed from a performance-centric play that positions transactional ads next to the digital point of sale to a fuller-funnel opportunity that leverages first-party data to engage potential consumers more broadly, both on and off the commerce platform’s properties. Leaders who realized the fuller-funnel potential of commerce media have been able to gain a competitive advantage in the space.
Likewise, growing channels like CTV represent a unique blend of high-level branding power—the kind traditionally associated with the sight, sound, and motion of linear TV—as well as performance-driven targeting and even interactive capabilities. Likewise, marketers who are leaning into the “either, or” dichotomy may look to CTV as simply a branding play traditionally associated with linear TV, but they may be missing out on innovations for performance-driven targeting.
Rigidly adhering to traditional swim lanes can hinder efficiency and effectiveness across all KPIs. If a brand is still assigning its media-buying teams to funnel-defined channels and tactics, it’s missing opportunities for greater impact and insights across KPIs. By bringing together traditional media teams with programmatic buyers to understand each other’s approaches and goals, brands and agencies can develop integrated plans that ensure media buys are being targeted, executed, and measured in a way that serves the full funnel.
Programmatic and Premium
Bringing teams together to develop integrated media plans does more than break down the walls between branding and performance objectives. It also acknowledges a shift in the quality of inventory across channels and buying modalities.
Programmatic has matured. Outdated thinking about programmatic as a vehicle for lower-tier inventory needs to be set aside, and direct buyers and programmatic traders must unite to capitalize on premium opportunities, especially in emerging channels like CTV.
Programmatic continues to play a deeper role in the buying of premium inventory. This is perhaps most evident in the CTV space, but it’s true across other channels, including audio, digital out-of-home, and more. Success in CTV and other evolving channels demands a paradigm shift among advertisers—one that embraces nimble, transparent programmatic buying modalities in areas where direct buys have long been the norm.
Many of the dichotomies within our industry, including those mentioned above, are remnants of legacy constructs that no longer serve the best interests of advertisers. Marketers who still view the industry in “either, or” terms are holding themselves back from advancing to the next growth level. The true innovators in marketing won’t fixate on tech or supply, performance or supply, programmatic or premium. Transforming digital advertising starts with those who can break free from this conventional thinking and lead the way.
