Not all programmatic is created equal

Opinion

Programmatic is a complex and mixed landscape but there are well defined strategies to navigate it safely and successfully.

From trust to transparency, digital advertising is falling short. At least, that’s the impression you get when reading pieces such as Nick Swimer’s recent article on the “clouded, ambiguous, nebulous” world of programmatic, or Nick Manning’s view on “the quagmire of digital”. Just two examples of many and, with such loaded language, even the most invested digital devotee would be forgiven for wondering whether online advertising is just a little too risky, too wasteful and too much trouble.

As the CEO of IAB UK — the industry body for digital advertising — my knee-jerk reaction to reading pieces like this is to pitch in and defend digital. I’ll admit it, you will sometimes find me muttering at my screen “but what about…” or “you’re forgetting that…”. It’s cathartic in its own way, but not particularly productive.

Right to ask questions

And yet I don’t actually disagree with the crux of many of these articles. The common theme running through most of them is that advertisers should take a discerning approach to digital — consider where they are spending and work with trusted partners — rather than adopting a ‘spray and pray’ approach to programmatic.

I agree with that completely and it’s a core part of our messaging at the IAB. What I take issue with is that by treating all programmatic as equal — as is almost always the case — you disregard any sense of nuance in a nearly £10bn industry. What’s more, a huge amount of airtime is given to the challenges within the digital ad industry, with scant mention of the solutions that exist.

With 74% of all UK ad spend being spent on digital media, it’s only right that it is interrogated. We shouldn’t stop highlighting where there are issues and calling out the bad actors within the programmatic supply chain because yes, they do exist.

But that doesn’t mean that programmatic is inherently bad. The vast majority of companies in this space are responsible players that proactively help to create the tools and standards that allow advertisers to invest their digital budgets wisely.

Countering risk and delivering value

So it’s time to move on from the blanket rhetoric that digital is a murky mess and recognise that not all programmatic is equal. This is not a case of throwing budget at an amorphous mass and hoping for the best. There are a number of ways to counter risk and deliver value via programmatic, and advertisers have the agency to choose partners that will deliver that.

With that in mind, I’ve put together a wish list of what I would love to see mentioned next time the state of digital is being dissected…

The Gold Standard

Of course it was going to be my number one. IAB UK launched the Gold Standard back in 2017 in response to the brand safety scandal that infamoulsy saw P&G’s Marc Pritchard label the supply chain “murky at best and fraudulent at worst”, drastically cutting spend (it’s worth noting that, today, P&G is increasing its digital spend and reporting more effective marketing as a result).

The Gold Standard combines steps such as using IAB Tech Lab’s anti-fraud tools, achieving TAG’s Brand Safety certification, and upholding The Coalition for Better Ads standards. In the past five years, the uptake we’ve seen across the industry has been huge, while a committed cohort of Gold Standard advertiser supporters — including adidas, Unliever, McDonald’s and Tesco — now pledge to prioritise working with certified digital advertising suppliers.

The programmatic financial audit toolkit

Yep, I know it’s not the snappiest of names, but this toolkit is a significant development. Following the ISBA/PwC study into the programmatic supply chain, a cross-industry taskforce was formed to enable programmatic campaigns to be audited end-to-end. It’s a feat of industry collaboration and the set of tools it has produced to enable advertisers to conduct financial audits of their supply chains should be noted in pieces like Swimer’s. We need to be recognising what has been achieved in the two years since ISBA’s study was released.

IAB Tech Lab

Take sellers.json and SupplyChain Object — two tools that have been developed by IAB Tech Lab to remove anonymity in the supply chain and improve transparency for buyers. Or ads.cert — that introduces sophisticated encryption technology to our industry to help combat fraud.

IAB Tech Lab not only has an extensive set of tools available to help tackle issues such as fraud and lack of transparency, its roster of working groups are also bringing the industry together to proactively keep pace with change and address emerging issues.

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One thing all of the above have in common is that none of them are compulsory. They rely on companies from across the supply chain – particularly from the ad tech side – proactively leaning in and making these initiatives work. They do that because they recognise the business benefit of upholding standards, improving transparency and delivering value. The power is then in advertisers’ hands to speak with their budgets.

So my message to advertisers is a simple one: ask the right questions of your providers and select partners that are doing the right thing, engaging with industry standards and using the tools available. Programmatic is a complex and mixed landscape but there are well defined strategies to navigate it safely and successfully. By moving away from the rhetoric that digital is a wild west, we can build on the good work that is happening, rather than just fixating on the bad and the ugly.

Jon Mew is the UK CEO of the IAB