Interesting article last week on Programmatic Reserve by Jay Sears in Ad Age (call it “‘guaranteed” if you want – just don’t call it “premium”). Jay’s a smart guy and right on the money with respect to the potential for a broader definition of “programmatic” to fundamentally change the online ad landscape and dramatically expand the pie. So from that angle I was in violent agreement, but two things still kind of grated on me as I read.
First was the shifting tense and implied timing.
Seemed to me that we went freely back and forth between present and future tense as the article unfolded. We were talking about a ripe opportunity for Programmatic Reserve, then something that was happening now, then sorting out the technology to make it happen. Those of you who know me (and/or read this page) know this is a topic near and dear to my heart. It’s most certainly a ripe opportunity. But it isn’t happening now to any meaningful degree. Lots of talk. Maybe almost that much work going on too, but not a lot of real money moving yet. Perhaps what he means is that this is the year that the work bears fruit and Programmatic Reserve becomes real. Possible, but we really have our work cut out for us.
Which brings me to my next issue – what needs to happen to make it real?
Jay outlined a vision including structured electronic RFPs on the buy side, structured electronic catalogs on the sell-side, even index funds. This was a good synthesis of many of the ideas that have been discussed over the years. So I love the aspirations, but I think the harder part is how to get there. That’s what folks haven’t been able to figure out yet (yes, that includes me when I was at Brand.net).
Exactly what problem are we trying to solve? Are we (as this article’s subheader suggests) trying to get up front budgets running through RTB? Not really. Are we trying to compete with excel as some others have suggested? I’m not sure that’s exactly right either. Is this primarily a buy-side problem or a sell-side problem? Seems to depend on who you talk to.
I think we’d be most productive as an industry to answer these questions once and for all, rather than spilling more (virtual) ink on the high-level vision for the future. So I am going to do my best this year to do just that. I.e. figure out what’s the right path to get us to this future we all see and frankly must create to keep growing long term.
I’ll keep you posted, and I’m very much looking forward to your input!
Andy's Blog 
Nice post, Andy. Simply put, we need to make the guaranteed process more efficient and profitable to the benefit our industry. We need to get closer to the TV operational costs to move more money to our medium. We have great consumer consumption online but not the equal share of ad spend. Programmatic guaranteed isn’t only about eliminating some of the excel work (which is a pain and by default is being solved), or trying to run upfront budgets through RTB; it’s about simplifying the media planning and buying process so agencies can buy more, faster. A great example where machines should be doing all the work in guaranteed media trading are ad tags. No one should ever have to touch a tag. A buying decision is made and, after a few clicks, tags should propagate into the seller’s ad server. And you’re right that there aren’t many dollars flowing through the automation that companies like ours are working on today, but we’re still early in the automation of the guaranteed display business. This predictable source of media trading for agencies and publishers is where the investment of time and money should be going. We can create more long term value for the interactive industry this way.