Here we are, once again, talking about programmatic adv, which is, at the moment, the leading segment of digital advertising, and the real star of the whole sector.
As a result, digital advertising is attracting more and more attention also in Italy, as acknowledged not only by the report entitled “ProgrammaticAdvertising in Italy: the current scenario and future trends” issued by IAB (discussed in depth in my post entitled “Blockchain:the turn of the screw for programmatic adv the related income”but also by the latest edition of theProgrammaticMarketing Forecast published by Zenith.
According to the report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, in our country 1advertiser every 4 is already investing 50% of their budget in programmatic adv; 3 advertisers out of 5 have invested 30% of their overall digital adv budget into programmatic; 30% of the overall turnover of 2 media agencies every 5 derives from programmatic adv and for 1 media agency out of 5 such percentage reaches up to 50%. That is not all:regardless of the type of player interviewed by IAB, the percentage of companies which purchase, sell or handle advertising space according to a programmatic logic, is over 80% and, when it comes to publishers, we can actually talk about 95%.
Globally speaking, instead, the survey conducted by Zenith revealed that, in 2019, 67% of digital investments will focus on programmatic adv, with an overall expense of 84 billion dollars, against 70 billion dollars and 62% of share recorded this year. And the forecast talk about a further increase in 2020, with 68% of share, amounting in 98 billion dollars.
A fast growing sector, then.However, it must be said, such growth has been slowing down. Indeed, Zenith has estimated that programmatic advertising will keep growing but slowly. Estimates talk about +24% in 2018 (lower than 32% in 2017), +19% in 2019 and +17% in2020. The root causes of such deceleration are essentially three and not all negative. The first two are connected to the consolidation of planning procedures within the digital media market and to the fact that companies have been investing in infrastructures and data, so as to make programmatic adv more efficient. The third cause is related to the enforcement of the European GeneralData Protection Regulation, which has reduced the availability of some data previously used for programmatic transactions and increased the cost of other data packages.
Going back to the current scenario of programmatic adv in Italy, our national market is still dominated by Google, both on the DSP (Demand Side Platform) side and on theSSP (Supply Side Platform) side. However, other players are expanding to contrast the high-tech giant monopoly. More specifically, the Oath Brightroll platform and Amazon have been operating in the sector.
Zenith, as previously done by IAB, has also reconfirmed the growth of programmatic adv in Italy, listing among several reasons for it, the increased awareness reached by local companies and a better control of their budget, along with better KeyPerformance Indicators and high revenues deriving from digital advertising. Especially publishers have been using data and technology to promote their inventories.
Although some advertising formats still have to be purchased traditionally, things are changing: addressable TV, i.e. commercials on digital TV, targeted live according to the profile of families watching a given program, the Dooh (DigitalOut of Home) and radio are starting to take their first steps in programmatic adv and their average inventory is actually growing.
To sum up, programmatic is strong and healthy, it is growing, and according to the forecast and the experts’ opinion, in the next 5 years it will consolidate its position also in those multimedia sectors which are still skeptical.
What do you think about programmatic adv? What do you like or dislike? Tweet @agostinellialdo.
To find out more about the digital world, you may read my latest book entitled: “PeopleAre Media”
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