Programmatic grew by leaps and bounds in 2018: Ashish Shah

Authored by Ashish Shah, Founder and CEO, Vertoz.

2018 has been a roller coaster ride for the Programmatic industry globally, shaped by the discussions around data protection and the growing penetration across industries. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in particular, dominated most conversations in the digital space. GDPR makes way for a more lawful data collection and transfers the control of the data back to users, all the while protecting their privacy. In India too, we foresee laws and regulations being proposed or implemented with respect to how data is gathered, stored and analysed, with the power of ‘what to share’ in the hands of the users. This is indeed a welcome move for the programmatic advertising industry that increases the overall data transparency, thereby addressing a major concern.

The programmatic advertising industry is seeing growth across the globe. In India too, the industry has been proliferating in recent times. The rise in internet penetration in the country has given a boost to the number of users getting online. There are close to 481 million internet users in India. In this deluge of the online audience, programmatic advertising enables brands to reach the right users, at the right time. Owing to its unique targeting capabilities, programmatic advertising brings new avenues for advertisers to reach the desired and the most relevant audience.

The increasing mobile penetration along with the availability of affordable high internet speeds has led to an increase in the consumption of online videos over text-based content. Videos are pulling swarms of viewers, indeed turning videos into a lucrative and a much sought-after advertising medium. This had led to an increase in the demand for video ads as advertisers simply want to be present where their audience is.

Consequently, it did not come as a surprise that video sharing apps and OTTs gained users’ attention and hence, became important for marketers and agencies in 2018. Platforms that enable sharing short-form mobile videos have garnered attention in today’s age of ever-shrinking attention spans. These apps are keeping it short and simple. As a result, apps like TikTok are finding acceptance among the younger crowd. Contradictory to this “short and simple” formula, OTTs are claiming to have the maximum engagement duration from the users. Most players offer either paid or free subscription. OTTs like Hotstar and Sony Liv have focused on the ‘freemium’ model, emerging as strong players and giving rise to the new advertising mediums for marketers to reach an even wider base of audiences. Given the disparity across demographics and the difference in audiences’ preferences, programmatic advertising helps brands reach their specific TGs, without wasting their ad budgets on unyielding ad impressions. Programmatic’s precise targeting also ensures that these video ads do not intrude the user experience and do not disturb them while they are on the platform.

The year also witnessed more companies adopt new technologies. Programmatic advertising platforms are embracing cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning (AI & ML), on the other hand, AR and VR are being explored as emerging marketing platforms that help to increase the customer engagement and brand recall by providing more immersive experiences.

As we enter another year, we are also excited to delve deeper into the various aspects of omnichannel targeting. With connected TVs gaining popularity, advertisers will need to align their communication with one more screen. 2019 will be the year of online advertising, with the General Elections and the Cricket World Cup expected to generate more advertising demand. Marketers are already working on campaigns and plans to effectively leverage these opportunities for ensuring their message reaches the potential voters/viewers. Programmatic advertising is the right answer for the specific needs of advertisers to reach a very niche and targeted audience segment.

In 2019, we expect the demand for programmatic advertising to go up further. More brands will on-board the programmatic bandwagon and experience its targeting capabilities. With the increasing acceptance and demand for programmatic advertising in India, there will be an increase in the healthy competition between different programmatic platforms, which will indeed benefit brands & advertisers to get the most out of all the platforms. The platform which understands the market better and has an audience-set highly relevant to the market & advertisers’ needs will have an upper hand. Vertoz with its advanced targeting capabilities and sophisticated integration with Data Management Platforms (DMPs) for intelligent audience-sets, will definitely have a better understanding of the advertisers’ requirement.

 

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