Emerging Formats in Programmatic Advertising

Technology and user behaviour are presenting us with new opportunities to reach recipients via different types of ad formats, whereas digitalization is creating new ad monetization opportunities for both Publishers and Advertisers; giving more effective options for reaching particular groups of customers based on their individual preferences and chosen media channels.

In this article, we will look at emerging formats in Programmatic advertising, which point to the future direction of Programmatic. In particular, we will focus on Programmatic Out Of Home (OOH), Connected TV (CTV) Programmatic and Audio Programmatic, the three areas that are increasingly becoming a part of the advertising landscape.

Outdoor advertising goes digital

Out-Of-Home (OOH) has been a popular advertising solution for years, reaching ever-wider groups of recipients. This format is now expanding and adapting to new trends, where digital billboards are present in public places: next to busy streets, near highways, in shopping centers or even airports, displaying video ads suitable for a given audience, and in certain places. Although they are not based on viewer behaviour, the ads that are displayed on these billboards can be adjusted based on the location of a billboard, the time of day, weather, current holidays or events happening either locally or worldwide. OOH Programmatic can create dynamic digital surroundings for everyday activities, suitable for a certain place and time, by taking into consideration different environmental factors. In this way, the displayed ads can be attractive to a nearby audience, thereby providing effective advertising for Publishers.

Reach on-demand platform viewers

These days it is common for different devices to be connected online. This represents a great opening for introducing Programmatic, one of them being Programmatic CTV advertising – a relatively new format based on a smart TV’s connection to the Internet. In the IAS “Streaming Wars” report from January 2020, it was shown that 90% of respondents (UK consumers) had access to a TV that has an internet connection. CTV ads are based on the same mechanism as Programmatic display ads – which means that Demand Side Platforms make ad placements based on parameters as set by the Advertisers in order to target and reach the most suitable users for a certain ad. Programmatic TV allows for the synchronisation of displayed ads not only across mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, but it also expands the experience on larger TV screens, which goes towards achieving a bigger impact on the viewers.

Connected TV Programmatic enables the displaying of video ads on streaming platforms such as HBO GO, Netflix, YouTube, or other on-demand streaming channels, which represents an opportunity for OTT Programmatic. CTV allows Advertisers to reach people who want to watch their favourite movies and shows in their own preferred time, and who don’t want to watch “just anything” that is currently being shown on TV. CTV advertising has an eCPM rate that is several times higher than regular video ads. When implementing this ad format, it is crucial to integrate the user data in order to reach the most suitable users possible, taking their preferences and habits under consideration. This is because users tend to care about the relevance of ad content being streamed between their shows.

Reaching online listeners

In recent times there have been some big changes relating to the digitalization of audio advertising. Now Advertisers can target their audio ad towards online listeners. The Programmatic audio format is a solution that emerged around 2016, and was created so that Advertisers could place audio ads online: with podcasts, streaming services or online radio. Advertisers, who had earlier focused on playing audio ads on the traditional radio format, realised that more can be done in this area; and that users can be targeted in a more precise way in terms of their  geo and demographics. 

Also, an important factor is the constant development of streaming platforms such as Spotify, which also can play audio ads among listened songs and podcasts. Programmatic audio has a big advantage when compared to regular digital ads because it is impervious to ad-block technologies. What also makes it unique is that ad content can smoothly blend with the content of the listened podcasts; all the while catching listener attention in a more natural way than display ads. An online audio ad can be well-suited to the type of podcast or playlist that the user is listening to at a given time, which means that a stronger awareness can be generated.

Looking at these emerging formats, we can see that Programmatic is constantly developing and it is important to keep track of the changes in this area so as to take advantage of new Programmatic market opportunities. Adapting to the latest technological trends can deliver higher user engagement, coupled with an increased awareness of potential streams and benefits. Most importantly, this can result in the achievement of a higher revenue stream.