Agency Employees: Three Factors to Consider for Choosing A Programmatic Platform

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As a marketer, you know how programmatic advertising can increase profitability for your clients. As an IMC Masters candidate with interest in programmatic marketing, I have found two great articles that can help you pick the programmatic platform that is best for your agency.

Article 1: Makad, Sam. “8 Things To Consider Before Choosing a Best Programmatic Advertising Platform." The Next Scoop.

      In this first article, Sam Makad discusses the factors that he feels are important to consider before choosing a programmatic advertising platform. Makad highlights the benefits of programmatic tools, such as automatizing bidding, buying, and placement of digital ads. The article emphasizes the importance of transparency. Bot traffic is an issue for some programmatic platforms; thus, it is important to ensure that your advertisements are receiving authentic impressions. Makad continues by stating the underrated importance of a strong technical support staff. Much of the technology surrounding programmatic marketing is new, so technical support needs are often times abundant. It is important to ensure that your programmatic platform will have a reachable support staff so that you can best utilize the platform’s capabilities.

  https://frank.ai/how-to-do-programmatic-marketing/

Article 2: Deshpande, Indrajeet. “Top 5 Programmatic Advertising Platforms for 2020 and Beyond.” Martech Advisor.

The second article moves into specific platforms and their capabilities, tying important concepts into practice. In specific, Deshpande discusses his top five picks for programmatic platforms right now: SmartyAds, TubeMogul, Simpli.fi, MediaMath, and PubMatic. In the article, Deshpande breaks down the specific advantages for each platform. He highlights SmartyAds’ versatility, with display, in-app, video, and native capabilities across desktop and mobile devices. He acknowledges TubeMogul as a platform with great TV capabilities that compensates advertisers for fraudulent traffic. Deshpande points out Simpli.fi’s capabilities to import CRM data that’ll enhance audience targeting and MediaMath’s omnichannel end-to-end capabilities. Finally, he declares PubMatic as his favorite platform that offers solutions for both brands and publishers.

Based on my analysis of these two articles and my expertise as an IMC student, I have three recommendations to consider when picking the programmatic platform that best fits your agency and its clients’ needs.

•         Capabilities Drive Success - Determine which programmatic advertising platforms have the most features that are relevant to you and your clients.

•      Ensure It’s Affordable - Figure out which platform is most affordable for your company.

•         Integrate Social Capabilities - Recognize which programmatic advertising platforms have capabilities compatible with the social networks which you advertise on.

By following these action items, you will be able to choose a programmatic marketing platform that best matches the needs of your agency and clients. Following these action items will ensure that you choose a programmatic platform that is easy to use and drives profits.

About The Author:

     

Lukas Stachtiaris

Candidate in Northwestern University's IMC Masters Program

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Sports Marketing Executives: 3 Action Items to Help You Leverage the Next Big Thing in Sports Marketing

For sports marketers, advertising mediums are constantly changing, due in part to advancements in technology and in part to disruptions in the ad tech industry. After spending the summer working in the digital marketing department at Under Armour and spending four years at Northwestern University studying marketing, I have come across two articles on the future of sports video game advertisements that can help you improve your company’s return on ad spend.

The article “‘NBA 2K19’ And Other Sports Games Have Gone Overboard With Ads — And it’s Ruining the Fun” comes from Business Insider gaming reporter, Kevin Webb. Webb discusses the current state of aggressive advertising in sports games and how as games try to become more life-like, they are adopting a similar ad strategy to the actual sports leagues. Webb mentions the popular basketball games, “NBA 2K19” and “NBA Live 19,” which both have sponsorships with Nike and Jordan brands. However, the in-game ads transcend just equipping players with their product, but also include non-traditional marketing tactics like the Jordan-branded Parisian streetball tournament mode.

 

Citation: https://www.statista.com/statistics/516094/value-video-games-advertising-market-usa/. 

In Yahoo! Finance’s piece, “Teens Are Obsessed With Watching Netflix And Playing Video Games," Brian Sozzi explores a recent Piper Jaffray survey of 8,500 teens, which found that about 83 percent of teens own or expect to buy a current generation gaming console. The study found that teens are spending more time playing video games each week, and that “male teens spend almost as much on video games (and consoles) as they do on basic elements required for survival,” Michael Olsen, author of the report, said. The report also found that stocks were soaring for video-game publishers like Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take Two Interactive.

Based on these articles and my experience in the sports digital marketing industry, I’ve developed three action items you should consider when planning your next digital advertisement buys.

• Capitalize on Video Games - Teens are increasingly obsessed with video games, making effective video game ad content that much more important for garnering exposure to young audiences.

• Find Your Game - Finding the right video game to advertise in is important because advertising with an already crowded game can create negative consumer sentiment.

• Attract Gen Z - A recent survey conducted by Piper Jaffray showed that about 83 percent of teens own or expect to buy a current generation gaming console, making it that much easier to reach a broad generation through one advertising medium.

The next time you’re thinking about diversifying how your company shows up in the digital ad space, consider these three important items about advertising with video games.

Dan Waldman is a senior at Northwestern University, studying Journalism, Business Institutions, and Integrated Marketing Communications. He has previously worked for Under Armour and the National Basketball Retired Players Association.

You can connect with Dan on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Newspaper Publishers: 3 Ways to Improve Your Digital Revenue

As a newspaper publisher, you know that growing your digital revenue will be key to a viable future. In my graduate-level studies in Northwestern University's online Integrated Marketing Communications program, I have found two articles on how publishers are ramping up their digital subscriptions that will help inform your decisions.

Esther Kezia Harding provides a deep dive into the successful trail the Financial Times has blazed online in her article “Truth, trust, transparency: the FT’s approach to a sustainable future” in The Media Briefing. The Financial Times' approach is built on having a direct relationship with their audience, which informs their approach to both breaking news events and long-term brand messaging. Chief Commercial Officer Jon Slade tells Harding that the Financial Times was well-positioned to benefit from such major news events as Brexit and Donald Trump's election because of their focus on quick, deep news analysis. Moreover, they have teams working around the clock to change subscription offers in response to real-time web traffic.

Image source: conceitos.com

A newer media outlet, the digital publisher Quartz, turned a profit from online advertising after four years, as Matthew Flamm writes for Advertising Age in "Mobile-Focused Startup Quartz Manages toActually Turn a Profit on Digital Journalism." The key to their success? Pursuing an elite readership. With a clean design free from pop-ups, banner ads and other visual junk, Quartz has positioned itself well for advertising from prestige brands who want to reach the "right" audience. Their rates are at the top end of the market, according to the article, because they offer a distinctive news product.

From my graduate studies in the Northwestern Medill IMC program and my review of these two publications, I have developed three key lessons to help you ramp up digital revenue.  They are:  

• Seek quality readers - Pursue the highest-value audience for your publication to earn more from subscribers and advertisers.

• Push real-time marketing - Be prepared to adjust offers when traffic spikes happen.

• Value your content - Your main selling point is the quality of your journalism, and what makes it special to your readers.

      By focusing on quality journalism, and selling that journalism to the right audience, as these two publications are, you will be able to chart a path for your publication into the future for years to come.

     

    Bridget Thoreson is a digital marketer, journalist and graduate student at Northwestern University. Contact me through Twitter or LinkedIn.