AI, ML can help Cos get more accurate campaign settings & raise efficiency: Julia Artemova

Hybrid is a global full-stack programmatic advertising ecosystem. Hybrid fully harnesses AI and ML algorithms to reimagine the programmatic and achieve a completely new level of transparency at every step. The company cooperates with many large companies in its field: Google, Unity, Yandex, AppNexus, AppsFlyer, Rubicon and others. It has over 200 advertising agencies among its clients, including GroupM, BBDO, Dentsu, OMD, and others.

Julia Artemova, Global Client Service Lead, Hybrid, has been working in the INSEA market, building up the best Client Service the in company and scaling effective approaches to working with customers.

In conversation with Adgully, Julia Artemova speaks about using the true potential of in-image advertising, the latest trends in programmatic advertising, scaling up Hybrid’s presence in India, and more.

Are marketers and brands using the true potential of in-image advertising?

We, at Hybrid, checked and evaluated this opportunity long time ago, and created VOX in-image product. It successfully started to work in the European market and it was decided that we will scale up to other markets with this product as well.

What are the advantages of in-image advertising?

I will speak about advantages through our VOX product. It can be considered from two points of view – advertiser's and user's.

For advertisers:

We all struggle for users’ attention, especially in our century of "banner blindness". That is why VOX helps to display product more natively in page content
100% relevancy - through contextual and AI-based analysis we show advertising only in the needed content
Higher Engagement Rate

For users:

More attractive format with non-standard mechanics
User-friendly design

What are the latest trends you foresee in programmatic advertising?

I think most of DSPs are now thinking about the things they can bring to programmatic – the field continuously develops and we need to keep up.

I see 2 main tendencies:

Moving towards in-house solutions

It is quite costly and needs lots of resources, but the result can be very profitable for the client.

At Hybrid, we already have such product called Hybe. It is programmatic in-house solution for mobile apps and games to acquire new users and retarget lapsed ones at scale. Many apps and agencies in India successfully have been using for 2 years this product for user acquisition and re-engagement. We keep improving it for even more in-housing opportunities.

Being in contact with clients

We need to promptly propose solutions that will effectively satisfy the needs of a client. For example, now we actively work with e-commerce clients through dynamic re-targeting feature.

How are you looking to scale up Hybrid in India? What are your plans for the Indian market?

We have been already working for 2 years, despite a challenging start in terms of conditions – it was COVID time. We successfully covered all four markets – North, East, West and South – and managed to build-up strong relationship with top agencies. Among our plans is expanding our sales team, onboarding of new clients and launching of new formats.

What are your future growth plans globally? What are your growth projections?

We are still looking for scaling up in the INSEA market (Singapore, Thailand) and at least doubling our profit growth.

How will machine learning, AI, etc., shape up the future areas such as contextual targeting, personalisation, etc.?

As I mentioned, we are struggling for users’ attention, and also want to target only relevant audience. So, these technologies can help to get more accurate campaign settings and raise efficiency of results.

Are marketers able to break their cookie addiction and figure out alternatives to third-party cookies before Chrome’s 2023 deadline? How can marketers consider their platform partners and focus on those that can deliver results without cookies?

I wouldn't like to make statements here, let’s wait until 2023 and check. But anyway, the product team should work on this challenge and predict solutions.

At Hybrid, we have Semantica 360, an alternative cookie identifier with wide targeting opportunity. AI-based analysis plus contextual analysis gives high relevancy rate.

Personalisation often can trespass into unchartered personal territory. How can brands draw that important line when it comes to personalisation?

I see the solution here in testing of different hypotheses – which product will work better for your client and bring you most knowledge.