Advertising Technology

According to trends, programmatic has a bright future in advertising; there could be changes to the way success in online advertising is measured; bot ease startles conference goers; automatic guaranteed needs some clarification, and how sometimes things just make sense for publishers.

• 7 Advertising Trends That Show You Exactly Where This Industry Is Headed (AdWeek) – Who doesn't love lists? Check out this one for info on the explosion of programmatic mobile, just when the desktop display growth might flatten and how video will play a role in the whole thing.

• Pageviews aren't perfect, but ad buyers see flaws in attention measures (Digiday) – Publishers have the audience, and advertisers want access to that audience. We can all agree on that. However, there's still some pretty active discussion about how to measure the effectiveness of those ads (and, in turn, how much to pay for them). Digiday reports that many on the buy side are willing to move past impression and click counts to more “engagement-based measurements,” but it's also pointed out that a lack of standards is slowing adoption.

• Fake Ad Fraud Ring Gets Conference Goers Attention (Wall Street Journal) – This is a pretty cool example of how easy it is to create loads of fraud traffic. And hey, there's even a zombie reference.

• What Does The Future Hold For Automated Guaranteed? (AdExchanger) – CEO of iSocket and Technorati Chairman of the Board Richard Jalichandra writes, “Like any emerging technology, automated guaranteed can be most successful when we don't try to reinvent the wheel from the get-go. Even though automation changes the way we do everything, new technology can be most effective if it, at least initially, mimics the way people have always done things, and whenever possible, integrates with existing systems to make workflows seamless.”

• Programmatic Buys ‘Make Sense' For Industry (NetNewsCheck) – Three media heavyweights weigh in on how programmatic buying can be a boon for the publishing industry, from better targeting to the ability to monetize unsold inventory. In today's publishing world, programmatic ad sales are no longer “a means of filling low-value inventory with remnant ads, programmatic ad sales are now decidedly mainstream.”

Some are already hailing private marketplaces as the “future of programmatic,” while others are lamenting their growing pains. There are “big changes” coming in the world of ad fraud. This viewability stuff needs to get sorted out, because there are some killer metrics waiting.

Here are a few highlights from some of the industry news we came across this week.

• The Private Future Of Programmatic (MediaPost) – Programmatic advertising is continuing to scoop big-time dollars across an ever-growing landscape, and those dollars are expected to nearly double in the next five years. Private exchanges are being called the future of programmatic strategy. This is because that type of buying more directly resembles the the direct buys of old. You know, the ones advertisers are used to and more comfortable with. But, that being said …

• Behind The Velvet Rope: Private Marketplaces Suffer Growing Pains (AdExchanger) – Private marketplaces have yet to live up to their potential as a programmatic access-point to premium inventory, and are being held back by under-developed technology. However, growth (and maturation) is expected as interest is there on both the buy and sell sides. Even so, there are still quite a few hurdles that private marketplaces must clear before they're the go-to solution for anyone.

• It's About to Get Harder to Claim Ignorance on Ad Fraud (AdAge) – IAB's EVP Mike Zaneis admits that it's likely that publishers are neither “knowingly” buying or selling fraudulent traffic, but that the shoulder-shrugging will no longer be tolerated and the “everyone else is doing it” excuse just isn't going to cut it anymore. “Big changes are coming,” he says.

• Navigating brand safety and ad fraud threats in the programmatic landscape (iMedia Connection) – AnyClip Media CTO Alex Liverant writes about how transparency should be the target of the ad tech industry. Viewable impressions and limiting ad fraud need to be the key pieces of the industry's foundation: “Viewable ads, targeted to engaged consumers, should be the basis of this industry and its future.”

• It's Time To Move Beyond Viewability: Better Metrics Await (AdExchanger) – Much of the discussion surrounding the “viewability” topic centers around setting the standard — how many pixels for how many seconds? — but this article takes a look at what new metrics can be used to to measure the old-school goals of reach and relevance. “The real work is to tie new metrics back to these,” says Grapeshot SVP of Product Marketing Chris Stark (no relation to Tony … probably).

Major talking points this week involved the continued uncertainty around the transition to a viewability standard, the absolute certainty around the growth in spending expected across the programmatic landscape, and what publishers are going to have to be ready for to be successful going forward.

• 5 Things IAB's Randall Rothenberg Wants You to Know About Digital Advertising (AdWeek) – Expect to see clearer and easier-to-understand standards around viewability soon, says the IAB. Also, where should ad tech fall in the realm of overall advertising?

• Outside Voices: Online Ad Viewability Not Ready For Prime-Time (Wall Street Journal) – Meanwhile, Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah wants to make sure that the steps to move to viewability aren't taken in haste. Click through to see what Shah sees as standing in the way of the transition to what he calls a “goal which we need to remember is without precedent in the entire media landscape.”

• Programmatic Transactions to Account for $21 Billion in Global Spending This Year (AdAge) – A new forecast from Magna Global shows growth of more than 50 percent in worldwide programmatic spending, seeing the expected total swell to about $21 billion. That growth is expected to continue going forward, with the $50-billion mark being exceeded in as little as four years.

• Programmatic: A Rising Tide (AdExchanger) – Find out what Rare Crowds' CEO Eric Picard sees as the future of programmatic, and what publishers will need to be prepared for going forward.

• How Tribune Publishing is evolving its programmatic approach (Digiday) – New CEO Jack Griffin is pushing to increase the publishing company's dependence on digital revenue, and programmatic selling is a major part of that concept. Programmatic is leading to sales changes and even new business relationships for the publicly-traded newspaper company.