Slippin’ Through Time
Yogurt isn’t sticky, but some brands are certainly stuck in the past. Some companies still believe that the most effective way to reach their target audience is through old school television ads. However, Dannon, the multinational yogurt brand, has started to slip through time as one the first companies to begin using programmatic advertising.
Programmatic advertising is a little complicated and hard to understand. Essentially, programmatic advertising, as I define it, is the use of computer systems to automate the buying and creation of advertisements based on specific data sets in real time. By allowing programs to do the work of humans, companies can reduce error and variability in human judgement during the ad creation process.
In the case of Dannon, the company partnered with LiveRail, a Facebook subsidy, to help them optimize their Facebook video advertising which resulted in reaching 90% of their target audience. Not only can these platforms help buy relevant ad space, but can also help you find the right consumer based on gender, age, and even location.
Big Brands Get Bigger
As I’ve talked about previously, advertisers are gaining a greater ability to target consumers. However, not all companies have equal access. Many small businesses may benefit from this type of automation, but it is certainly out of reach due to cost. Even at a low cost, competing with big brands for media space may be next to impossible. Because of this, advertising as a smaller business is growing more and more competitive as ad power seems to be moving to the hands of the highest bidder (literally).
Yet, if you have the cash to flash then programmatic advertising is certainly a brilliant investment. The returns on Dannon’s Activia campaign were far beyond their expectations. What other way can you reliably reach close to 100% of your target audience? As shown, as consumers’ attention diverts away from TV traditional brands may need to reinvest into social media advertising to stay relevant.
Here’s a great breakdown of programmatic marketing by a real marketing company.
