The cookie is dead: Long live identity graphs

Despite being the backbone of programmatic advertising since the launch of the first banner ad in 1994, the third-party cookie’s reign is set to come to an end. In under a year’s time, Google is planning on following competitors such as Mozilla and Apple in eliminating the cookie from its browser.

The death of the cookie represents a fundamental change in how marketers interact with and personalise messages to consumers. Tracking how people browse the internet, third party...

4 December 2020 | Advertising

Ad execs still clinging to crumbling cookie methods as creatives look to the future – survey

The move by Google to end third-party cookies by 2022 has caused something of a difference of opinion in certain marketing sectors, according to a new study.

The report, from Mymyne, a provider of contextual audience optimisation, which polled 100 senior marketing professionals, found that while almost two in five (39%) respondents in creative roles felt as though the impact of Google’s move would be ‘highly positive’, only 13% of ad execs felt the same way.

27 March 2020 | Advertising

AI for programmatic is great – but tragedy shows us why human judgement remains vital

Artificial intelligence has been an indispensable tool for programmatic ad buying. But algorithms can’t always tell the difference between positive and negative sentiment — you need a human for that.

This was brought home to me in the days following Kobe Bryant’s death in January. The tragic event spurred a tidal wave of activity on social media, which triggered ads for his jersey and other memorabilia items. This came across as tacky to many consumers. One of my...

18 March 2020 | Advertising

For luxury brands, the possibilities of programmatic cannot be ignored

For luxury brands, creating customer relationships, and the revenues they bring, is everything. A $25,000 watch or $150,000 vehicle is rarely an impulse buy, but instead a purchase achieved after many different points of engagement. 

An increasingly higher percentage of all ad budgets is being taken up by programmatic advertising, and luxury brands and their marketing efforts need to hop on board with this trend. Digital advertising has the power to use contextual targeting and...

3 December 2019 | Advertising

Privacy and real-time bidding: An updated guide for adtech vendors and publishers

Until the summer of 2019, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s privacy regulator, had not been particularly pro-active in enforcing the law on data protection in respect of the use of cookies and programmatic advertising based on real-time bidding (RTB).

This all changed in June and July of this year, when the ICO published respectively a detailed report into RTB practices and an updated guidance note on the use of cookies. There are some key points...

29 November 2019 | Advertising

The cookies crumble: Is enhanced digital privacy the end of programmatic as we know it?

The ad tech industry has faced a flood of challenges — with the GDPR driving stricter data regulation, brand safety concerns sparking the ‘adpocalypse’, and Apple’s Safari ITP limiting cookie use. Add Google’s updated Chrome privacy features to the mix, and many are left wondering: what’s next for programmatic?

Programmatic platforms were built with the cookie in mind and a surprisingly large number still rely on third-party data. But as the...

13 September 2019 | Advertising

Whether in-house, outsource, or anything in between, agencies can – and do – help

Programmatic is now mainstream – expected to account for almost 90% of digital display ad spend in the UK next year – so brands naturally want to understand it better and gain more control over how their advertising budgets are spent.

To achieve this greater level of understanding and control, many brands are taking steps towards in-housing programmatic. An IAB study conducted across multiple European markets revealed that 86% of programmatically active brands already...

30 August 2019 | Advertising Technology

The reality of truly personalised marketing approaches: An investor’s viewpoint

The marketing and advertising technologies sector has experienced incredibly rapid change in the past few years. The pace of change is accelerating due to the proliferation of data across multiple channels, which enables marketers to build ever more precise profiles of their customers.

Marketers can now draw on data from search engines, social media, content viewing and more to understand what individuals are interested in and how likely they are to make a purchase. At the same time,...

24 June 2019 | Advertising Technology

Examining the second cycle of programmatic – and the effects for end users and advertisers

If economic cycles turn on average every six to eight years - growth, leading to a tightening or even recession, then to a reset and regrowth - then 2018 was the crescendo in the first cycle of programmatic. Since its early days, programmatic has improved advertising in both process and efficiency, delivering targeted advertising and reducing wasted spend, but over the last year the sector saw rapid growth followed by a peak in the challenges facing it.

The programmatic industry is...

6 June 2019 | Advertising

Programmatic ad viewability outperforming direct ads for first time, says report

A new study from Integral Ad Science (IAS) has noted a potential sea-change in terms of digital advertising, with programmatic desktop display ads in the UK outperforming publisher direct ads for the first time.

The Media Quality Report, which offers UK benchmarks for viewability, brand safety and ad fraud across digital environments and channels, noted that during the second half of 2018 almost seven in 10 (69.1%) programmatic UK desktop display ads met minimum viewability...

4 April 2019 | Advertising Technology