Exclusive | Empowering marketers with programmatic media buying systems

In a recent suburban event, Millward Brown, the world’s leading expert in helping businesses grow strong brands, released its Annual Digital & Media Predictions for the year ahead. For the seventh year running, the company is providing marketers with a clear guide to the challenges and opportunities of the next 12 months. Millward Brown unveiled the 2015 Digital & Media Predictions at an exclusive media conclave where eminent personalities from the field of advertising and marketing discussed the future direction of media.

Authored by Millward Brown experts from around the world, the 2015 report identifies the need for marketers to empower programmatic media buying systems to do more than simply access cheaper and more targeted impressions.

To make this transition, marketers will need to create communications that can be customized and seamlessly delivered by media buying algorithms. Millward Brown says brands that achieve this will be able to create a new form of dynamic and relevant storytelling.

At the same time, marketers will need to ensure the advantages that come from programmatic targeting are not delivered at the expense of other key campaign objectives such as communicating brand messages and building long-term desire. Successful programmatic providers will increasingly differentiate themselves based on their ability to deliver campaigns that not only drive behaviours but also improve brand metrics.

Adgully exclusively caught up with Mark Henning, AMAP Head for Media & Digital at Millward Brown to know more about insights for the predictions in 2015.

Scope of Micro Videos:

In world where people want to get rid of ads, marketers are bringing in innovative ideas to present content in micro videos (5 seconds to 15 seconds).

Henning adds, “It’s a matter of strategy of how it fits into that brands strategy say FMCG companies using Vine. Say Pepsi did one based on last year’s progress on their campaign by music in the half time act they pulled up on Vine which had a range of Pepsi cans. I think it can get caught. So I think it’s not restricted to category. If its strategy to the brand, if it fits the audience of the brand and if you’re executing Vine in terms of giving some messages then the strategy should work for the brand.”Micro Videos vs. Long format ads:

It comes back to what the strategy is and who you trying to talk to; how you are trying to do that and I think that in longer form videos, the challenge is engaging the audience for a longer period of time. It’s often hard to keep that engagement throughout the video, so what will tend to happen around that is more likely to be really engaged content. For example car enthusiast will not be able to consume a 6 minute video with the liveliest features around for a new car that is coming out but the average motorist can afford to come up with some key points about why that cost different and that one should think about that car.

In this way, there are different formats that work for different people. So if you’re talking to car enthusiasts then a longer form video might not work, however if you’re talking to the average driver, a 6 minute video might just be the most effective video for him. It’s of course a matter of choosing the right medium and objective for your brand.

There are lot of different strategies, and a lot of different people out there doing different things with video. So finding the right range of customer if you’ve got a compelling piece of video or content, then you can take it further and allow people to engage in it.

Predictions and its Relevance to Indian audience:

The following are the predictions for 2015:
1. Second Screen Syncing brings greater multiscreen control
2. Breaking down social and mobile Silos:  Social and mobile media will offer a more coordinated look at the landscape they occupy
3. Not just Big – Intelligent (Data): Focus next year will shift from “Big” to “Intelligent” Data.
4. Paid Advertising propels micro-video into the mainstream
5. Digital Advertising at 21: Marketers get savvy about multi-generational multiscreen marketing.
6. Programmatic gets creative: Programmatic advertising evolves by merging smart and engaging creative elements with existing media buying algorithms.
7. Programmatic increasingly contemplates the brand: Advertisers will use new methodologies to conduct brand effectiveness evaluations of programmatic campaigns
8. Consumer-focused location-based marketing blooms: Location-based marketing opportunities are powerful when brands focus on consumers’ interests rather than on their own.
9. Native advertising more often gets it right – but choose wisely: Optimize across devices by aligning branding objectives with learning about how screen usage varies by generation and contextual task.
10. Analog goes Digital: In 2015, analog’s modern day design will truly take shape.
11. Winning in the Digital Age: Winning organizations will court innovators, focus on digital, think collaboratively, and see the big picture.

Mark highlights the Relevance of these predictions to the Indian audience. He said. “I think they are very relevant to the audience in India. A lot of trends that we are talking about in India have a global scale. And so there are all different markets in the world, different stages with different elements of that.  Mobile and video penetration in digital is different all over the world. Ultimately, a lot of the trends that are happening internationally are happening in India, while other markets of the world are trying to keep up with that going forward.”

TV vs Digital spends:

It’s hard to know whether marketers will decrease their spends on television. We have seen in different markets that different media will hold up their spends in different vehicles. Because TV has worked for a very long time and it has a strong range. The danger for that is it can often be more expensive medium. There is a scope for growth in print, but we have people there consuming news that is there in the digital environment. I think the right of change in the medium will vary and the move towards digital and digital will continue to grow as a medium.

Internationally I think UK as a market has seen more spends on digital or digital first than TV.

Measuring Efficiency of Digital:

Measuring the efficiency is a challenge because it is so fragmented. So we do have some modes of measurement in the digital space but its effectiveness needs to be groomed. Mobile again makes that trickier in terms of measurement. It is a challenge for the industry and measurement is a good thing and the industry wants transparency amongst whom they all are talking to but the technology is moving so fast that the measurement bodies are not being able to cope up with that, and that will be something that will continue to be a focus.

On a concluding note, Prasun Basu, Managing Director, South Asia Region at Millward Brown and Mark had something to share.

Prasun Basu, Managing Director, South Asia Region at Millward Brown said,” Millward Brown’s Annual Digital & Media Predictions provide a guide to how marketing is likely to change in the next 12 months. A series of media conclaves in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru will provide marketers and media professionals a platform to discuss these trends and exchange ideas that will impact the way brands reach out to consumers.”

“To date, the debate around programmatic media has been firmly centred on the ‘how’ of operations and behavioural metrics such as cost per click,” said Mark Henning, AMAP Head for Media & Digital at Millward Brown. “In 2015 we expect marketers to be equally focused on the benefits programmatic may be able to bring to building meaningful brands and the opportunities to leverage it more creatively.”

“Native, micro-video and location-based marketing are disparate technologies, but they are connected by marketers’ desire to deliver more relevant communication,” said Henning. “A key challenge for marketers in 2015 will be balancing identification of the perfect marketing moment with a need to generate cost-effective scale and reach.” By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit