Interview: Julia Atanasova, GM Crimtan for Bulgaria
The growth in programmatic is progressive, and the opportunities provided by that sector are increasing constantly. Programmatic is top trend globally for advertisers, agencies, publishers. And the goal is always only one – to make effective contact between brands and customers and generate maximum performance with digital campaigns.
Reaching the right audiences on – line and best engagement depends extremely on technologies which directly affects brands’ proper communication and ROI.
How to choose programmatic partner, what are the challenges?
I asked one of the first in that field – Paul Goad, founder of one of the largest technological companies Crimtan.
After five years in print media at VNU Business Communications, Paul was one of the early adopters of online advertising, joining DoubleClick as one of its founder employees in 1997. During his five years with the company, he was responsible for building the publisher network and managing the strategic sales team. Paul moved on to work at 365 Media Group as Commercial Director where he built the media network from a two site portfolio to one of Europe’s largest Sports networks with 14 sites and over three million unique users. Paul joined Tacoda in August 2006 as UK MD and was responsible for setting up their first international office. Paul established Tacoda as a pioneer and market leader in networked behavioural targeting and was instrumental in educating UK advertisers about the benefits of behavioural targeting and the opportunities it presents. Just prior to the takeover of Tacoda by AOL, Paul moved to join NebuAd as UK MD in November 2008 and left to start Crimtan in September 2009. Paul’s media experience has given him a wide range of sales and management skills as well as an in-depth understanding of all aspects of online advertising.
What are the key challenges for the digital advertising industry now?
Multi-device tracking and attribution
Establishing a ‘single customer view’ by integrating data from digital and traditional marketing
Planning more effectively for the increasing amount of time spent on mobile devices
Viewability
Ad blocking (for publishers)
Why should publishers make the shift to programmatic?
It gives them access to many more advertisers and allows them to efficiently manage and monetise their long tail inventory.
What is on the horizon for video advertising?
A lot more money will move to video and advertisers will be looking for better targeting options and viewability. Advertisers will need to plan for much more video viewing on mobiles. Inventory will be tight and quality will remain an issue.
The role of video is changing and it’s now being seen further down the funnel and closer to a buyer decision. Why do you think this is?
With more short-form video content being consumed, better targeting, more engaging formats, and the ability to view it on mobile devices, video is inevitably going to be used to drive performance as well as branding.
How does human creativity fit into multichannel programmatic strategy?
With more user data and bigger inventory pools, programmatic presents a much greater ability to accurately target users, so it is more important than ever to ensure that the ad delivered is relevant and engaging. This is possible through developments in dynamic creative delivery, and the two combined present real opportunities for advertisers.
What are the biggest challenges brands will encounter when it comes to programmatic?
Going programmatic isn’t as simple as plugging in and off you go, it takes the right skills to make programmatic work to its best ability. You need intelligent, experienced traders and analysts to get the best performance and avoid the many pitfalls of poor quality inventory.
What is the key factor that clients should check for when choosing programmatic partner.
Make sure the partner has a connected DMP as well as the DSP delivery element. If you really want to get the best performance you need to be able to manage data as well as buy inventory programmatically. Also, look for the ability to use dynamic creative – as this will mean user data can drive really relevant creative that will maximise ROI.
Crimtan is very fast growing hi-tech company, what are the news, what new we can expect?
Since 2016 Crimtan developed the ability to deliver personalised messages across multiple devices. We are also looking to form more partnerships with traditional media companies so that advertisers can plan coordinated, connected campaigns across multiple offline media as well as multiple digital devices.
Thank you.
Crimtan Bulgaria 