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PROGRAMMATIC GOESGLOBALTrends and best practices for transforming marketing worldwide

DataXu 3December 2014

The New Global Standardfor Customer EngagementThe programmatic revolution knows no borders.

The same transformation that the U.S. ad industry has

been undergoing recently is also showing up in mar-

kets around the world as global marketers embrace

programmatic to deliver the right message to the right

user at the right time wherever they do business. For

major brands, the question is no longer whether to use

programmatic but what their strategy should look like

and how it should be implemented globally. In fact,

Advertising Age’s 2014 Global Programmatic Survey,

conducted for DataXu, shows that 55% of respondents

from brands and agencies said they already have a

global strategy in place, and momentum continues to

build (Figure 1).

The drivers for the broad adoption of programmatic

are simple to understand, and similar overseas to do-

mestic markets: Brands and agencies use programmatic

to increase marketing efficiency, helping them get more

out of their budgets. But beyond incremental improve-

ments, an effective programmatic strategy can also sig-

nificantly change the way a brand does business around

Why Global Programmatic

Figure 1BUDGETING FOR PROGRAMMATIC

AVERAGE % DOMESTIC MARKET AVERAGE % INTERNATIONALLY

n Two years ago n Currently n Estimated two years from now

What percentage of your online/digital media budget was, is and do you estimate will be bought and/or executed via programmatic technologies?

Base = 351 respondents

Having transformed advertising markets and practices within the U.S., the programmatic revolution is already well

underway in the rest of the world, too. This white paper explores the state of global programmatic today, including

the strategies and tools being used, the goals marketers hope to achieve and the impact on relationships among

brands, agencies and technology providers. Data from a recent Advertising Age survey, complemented with insights

from leading global marketers and technology leaders, reveal a thriving ecosystem of automation and insight that’s

helping advertisers reach further with their messages, target and engage more effectively with customers, and drive

growth wherever they do business.

44.4%51.1%

56.2%

11.7%

20.0%

29.8%

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DataXu 4December 2014

the world by enabling the creation of global standards

as well as fine-tuned campaign optimization for local

markets. More than a specialized tactic, programmatic

is being used as a core element of branding as well as

for performance-oriented campaigns and for every ad

format.

As with programmatic on a domestic level, global

programmatic strategies present a learning curve. While

the principles remain the same everywhere—using

automation and big data across channels to achieve

higher levels of targeting, relevance, efficiency and

impact—regional variations add a layer of complexity

when they’re applied on a worldwide scale. Localized

approaches must adapt to differences in the availability

of data, consumer privacy regulations, inventory, and

popular formats and devices. Organizational structures

are evolving in tandem with strategies as brands and

agencies seek the best way to build their programmat-

ic expertise and effectiveness. Relationships among

brands, agencies and technology providers are develop-

ing similarly.

And this is only the beginning. A recent forecast by

Magna Global, the digital media buying arm of Interpub-

lic’s Mediabrands, predicts that worldwide media sales

via programmatic will rise 52% this year to $21 billion

and 27% over each of the next four years to $53 billion

in 2018.

Marketers are equally bullish about the opportuni-

ties afforded by their programmatic investments. In the

coming years, they expect to see a greater volume of

higher-quality inventory sold through programmatic,

increasing consolidation of tools and vendors across

markets and an improved ability to gain a unified view

of customer engagement worldwide. As they master the

nuances of creating and executing localized, personal-

ized marketing strategies on a global scale, the return on

these investments will only grow. Programmatic is truly

changing the marketing world.

Beyond Efficiency: Programmatic for Performance and Branding

While the level of understanding of programmatic

buying among marketers has increased greatly since

its inception, definitions still vary. Brands and agencies

often associate programmatic with phrases such as

audience targeting, real-time bidding, automation and

optimization—all important elements of the strategy,

but not an exhaustive description. It can be helpful

to think of programmatic in terms of its benefits for

marketers. This begins with campaign and operational

efficiencies—brands and agencies can define segments

better, and more easily and efficiently execute cam-

paigns, while standardizing their operations with fewer

tools to reduce training and overhead. In the words of

Bruce Journey, co-founder and chief customer officer

of DataXu, “Programmatic lets you get the dumb work

out of the way so you can focus on smart work.”

On another level, programmatic also makes it possi-

ble to capture new insights into customer characteristics

and behaviors fueled by analytics performed on data

from various first-, second- and third-party sources.

Real-time visibility into customer engagement can

enable continual optimization to make every impression

THE VALUE OF PROGRAMMATIC

“Programmatic helps us maximize our spend and do more things than we could otherwise

afford.”

—Ben Jankowski, group head for global media, MasterCard

DataXu 5December 2014

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more effective—especially when programmatic tools are

implemented on a global scale, making such strategies

viable even in smaller markets.

The programmatic conversation often begins with

efficiency—the ability to buy media more cheaply and

improve workflows. The operating expenses required to

run digital advertising can be several times the cost of

running ads on television and other traditional media,

so the economic benefits of programmatic practices

such as consolidated buying and custom exchanges are

especially attractive for marketers and agencies under

pressure to keep costs down.

Drawn by these benefits, the first companies to

embrace programmatic in a given market are often per-

formance marketers looking for a faster, cheaper way to

execute campaigns, with a keen focus on metrics. For

already-strong brands, the difficulty of measuring brand

health can be another good reason to use program-

matic for performance goals instead. “We’re looking to

drive sales,” says Raj Rao, global VP, eTransformation,

at 3M. “For example, almost all of the sales for our

Littmann Stethoscope are online, so a typical program-

matic buy for us would be to engage someone to view

a video about the device and its telehealth capabilities,

and then send them into a channel like Medshop to

complete the purchase.”

But efficiency is just part of the picture. “People talk

about efficiency and automation, but they’re only the

tip of the iceberg for the value of programmatic,” says

Martin Brown, VP, managing director of U.K. and Nor-

dics, DataXu. “By standardizing around a particular set of

programmatic technologies, companies can roll out cam-

paigns with a global scale from centralized points within

each region, aggregate and capture information around

branding and performance marketing activity, and lever-

age this data to drive better marketing outcomes.” By

understanding a customer’s reaction to a message in real

time, marketers can target and address that customer on

the impression level for true one-to-one engagement.

This blend of efficiency and effectiveness is mirrored

in the way marketers use programmatic for both brand-

ing and performance. “We’re trying to make program-

Figure 2BRANDING VS. PERFORMANCE ADSWhat percentage of your digital media purchased or executed using programmatic technologies is for branding ads and what is for performance advertising?

47.1% 51.5%52.9% 48.5%

n Branding n Performance

AVERAGE %DOMESTIC MARKET

AVERAGE %INTERNATIONALLY

Base = 351 respondents

matic a big part of most of our campaigns, including

some brand work,” says Ben Jankowski, group head for

global media at MasterCard. “That being said, most of

our branding activities revolve around premium buys tied

into other media programs and events, such as a pre-

mium buy on music websites to support a music festival

in tandem with radio and TV time, print and outdoor

advertising, and other consumer experiences. Program-

matic is more about efficiency and performance for us.”

For less-established brands building a name in a new

market, the efficiency benefits of programmatic can

outweigh the difficulty of measuring branding impact,

as lower media costs and improved workflows help

spread their message further than they could through

traditional methods. Indeed, the proportion of program-

matic buys for branding ads is slightly higher overseas

than in domestic markets, and is roughly equal to global

programmatic buys for performance ads—51.5% com-

pared with 47.1%, according to the survey (Figure 2).

Whether for branding or performance, marketers

take advantage of the ability to buy ads based on audi-

ences vs. content overseas just as they do domestically.

According to the survey, 58.8% of domestic and 56.8%

of international programmatic digital media buys are

done for audience, compared with 41.2% domestic and

43.2% international for content.

Where ProgrammaticIs on the Rise—and WhyIt’s no surprise that marketers consider the U.S. to be

the most mature region in the use of programmatic

buying, but others aren’t far behind. Asked about the

importance of various regions for international expan-

sion of programmatic (Figure 3), respondents to the Ad

Age survey ranked Canada, Asia and Western Europe

closely behind, as might be expected—but also fre-

quently mentioned South America, the Caribbean and

Figure 3PROGRAMMATIC EXPANSION AROUND THE WORLDHow important is each of the following regions for expanding internationally?

50.0%

48.2%

41.1%

42.5%

41.0%

29.4%

24.7% 24.4%23.1%

20.0%17.3%

12.0%

UnitedStates

Canada Asia Western Europe

SouthAmerica

Caribbean& Mexico

Eastern Europe

Australia Central America

Middle East Africa

3.433.86

4.464.584.804.85

5.07

5.765.626.14

6.12

Base = 351 respondents. Chart based on 8-to-10 ratings, where 1 = not at all important and 10 = extremely important

DataXu 6December 2014

• Average rating

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DataXu 7December 2014

Mexico, Eastern Europe and Australia.

In developed markets with a mature media and

advertising ecosystem, the sheer volume of supply can

simplify marketers’ ability to get value, especially when

armed with the right data, making them particularly ripe

for programmatic. In less sophisticated markets with

fewer media choices, publishers may tend to rely on a

larger share of premium buys. Still, says Mr. Jankowski

of MasterCard, “There are only a handful of markets

where we’re not already using programmatic, and we’re

leading toward being truly global in our approach.”

Multinational software company SAP makes no

distinction between its domestic and overseas use of

programmatic. “We’ve approached programmatic in

a global manner across North America, Latin America,

EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Our investments vary across re-

gions because of differences in our marketing budgets,

but it’s not limited by our level of familiarity and under-

standing,” says Valentina Pettenati, director of integrat-

ed media for EMEA/MEE at SAP. However, this global

approach doesn’t mean one size fits all. “Across and

even within regions, our business objectives and go-to-

market strategy can be quite different. It makes sense to

talk about North America as a region, but within EMEA,

for example, the U.K. is very different from Italy.”

Decisions about where to use programmatic, and

to what extent, can come down to the math. In a less

expensive media market, it may be harder to justify

the cost of programmatic tools. “The fixed cost you

pay for technology may be the same in each market,”

Ms. Pettenati says. “But in a lower-cost media market,

it can account for a dramatically higher percentage of

your budget than in a higher-cost market. You may be

willing to spend a higher percentage of your budget on

programmatic, but does it make sense to spend your

budget that way in India?”

Mr. Rao of 3M says China, the U.K., Brazil, Mexico

and, to a lesser extent, Japan are key markets for the

company’s programmatic strategy. “We begin with the

viewpoint of where we can achieve the highest return

on our programmatic investments,” he says. “We want

to have a clear expectation of how much programmatic

can drive improvements in share of voice, search engine

rankings and conversions.” Mr. Rao also differentiates

between the engagement models for business-to-busi-

ness—characterized by content marketing, paid social

activity and deep catalog links—and business-to-con-

sumer, where user reviews, videos and other emotional

appeals play a deeper role.

Other factors shaping global programmatic strategies

include differences in device types and media usage.

In the U.S., for example, digital marketers often focus

on tablets and desktops being used in the office during

midweek working hours, while in emerging markets,

mobile devices play a larger role, with far fewer desk-

tops in the mix. In the key Chinese market, buying

centers on specific social platforms such as Baidu and

EXECUTING PROGRAMMATIC GLOBALLY

“There may be markets like North America that are further ahead in programmatic, but

many brands want to cover as much ground as they can to achieve strategic scale. They

might lead with the bigger markets in North America and Europe but they’re also seeking

to execute across the globe rather than doing things one small piece at a time.”

—Martin Brown, VP, managing director of U.K. and Nordics, DataXu

Decisions about where to useprogrammatic, and to what extent, can come down to the math.

DataXu 8

Weibo, and many buying agencies are owned by e-com-

merce platforms whose head-to-head competition for

referral fees leads them to enforce strict rules about

where traffic is allowed to go. Such an idiosyncratic

market can be difficult to incorporate into a truly global

programmatic technology infrastructure and strate-

gy—though the size of the Chinese consumer class can

make the effort worthwhile.

Another factor facing marketers using programmatic

globally is that data sources vary greatly across regions,

making programmatic buying more difficult in some

areas. Much of the analytics and audience segmenta-

tion enabled by programmatic is driven by third-party

data sources that aren’t available in every country. “We

have SAP-owned data everywhere we do business,”

Ms. Pettenati says. “But once you go beyond North

America, second-party data becomes less available, and

there may be few publishers who can provide much

information for your campaign. Third-party data differs

as well—it’s easier in English-speaking markets, but

it becomes much harder to find the data to profile a

campaign in MENA, so you have to adapt. But again,

we don’t change our approach but rather the way we

execute the campaign.”

It’s still possible to use programmatic effectively

even without cookie-based third-party data, such as by

relying more heavily on the brand’s own data or infor-

mation aggregated through the execution of standard

media campaigns. It just calls for a flexible approach to

determine what will be feasible in each market. In fact,

these emerging markets might turn out to be better

positioned for the future than established markets built

around cookies, an approach vulnerable to new regula-

tions, such as mandatory opt-in, in the ongoing battles

over consumer privacy in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Privacy regulations also limit the extent to which mar-

keters can put behavioral data to work. “In the U.S., we

can use our [demand-side platform] to capture behavior

Figure 4DATA & ANALYTICS IN MARKETING EFFORTS

In which of the following ways are data and analytics being integrated into marketing efforts for global brands in your domestic markets vs. international?

Base = 266 respondents (those who are standardizing or attempting to standardize measurement and accountability across programmatic vendors)

December 2014

Campaign optimization

Improve strategies

Improve success metrics

Understand customers’ buying journey

Improve ad investment (traditional to programmatic)

Audience development

Improve cross-channel customer experience

Creative development

Understand share of voice

Rapid response to trends/events

Product development

Other (increase ROI, leverage across all media, KPI standardization, etc.) 2.6%

62.8%

62.0%

59.8%

59.0%

54.9%

51.9%

47.0%

44.0%

35.7%

35.3%

30.8%

DataXu 9

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December 2014

beyond clicks and get a broader view of our customer

engagement,” says 3M’s Mr. Rao. “In other countries

we don’t see that data, so we don’t know how to bring

that profile into retargeting programs. Programmatic

data becomes more transactional overseas, rather than

driving our CRM roadmap as in the U.S.”

In verbatim answers about the use of data for pro-

grammatic, respondents to the Ad Age survey cited a

greater comfort level in domestic markets, a closer rela-

tionship to the data and the companies that manage it

in domestic markets and greater access to data domes-

tically. Respondents also said that they tend to develop

programs domestically and then try to adapt them to

global markets.

Asked about the role of data in their programmatic

strategies domestically compared to globally, respon-

dents cited increased use of campaign optimization,

strategic refinement and improved success metrics, as

well as other elements (Figure 4).

Choosing and ImplementingProgrammatic ToolsThe technology stack for programmatic, overseas

as in domestic markets, is generally built around the

demand-side platform (DSP), a key enabling layer that

lets advertisers manage multiple ad and data exchange

accounts as well as bid for and buy ads through a

single point of control. Other elements can include data

management platforms (DMPs), data providers, inven-

tory sources, verification services, viewability solutions,

transactional systems and buy-side forecasting tools.

According to the Ad Age survey, the level of satis-

faction with programmatic technologies being used

internationally tends to lag behind the satisfaction with

tools used domestically, particularly in the U.S. (Figure

5). In some areas, this may reflect maturation or cultural

differences between markets. For example, global

vendors were rated significantly lower on consumer

HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU WITH PROGRAMMATIC TECHNOLOGY VENDORS?

Rate the level of satisfaction of each of the following when purchasing digital media through programmatic technology vendors in your domestic market and in your international markets.

Figure 5

Base = 351 respondents. Chart based on 8-to-10 ratings, where 1 = not at all satisfied and 10 = extremely satisfied

Targeting options

Reach and/or scale

Privacy Analytics and reporting

capabilities

Pricing Operational efficiency

Creative formats

Inventory quality

Consumer insights

Inventory transparency

51.3 51.2 50.749.3

47.0 45.744.2

41.4 41.0 40.4

33.632.2

35.3 35.6

31.1 32.2 33.1 32.330.8

32.8

n Domesticn InternationalNumbers are percentages

DataXu 10December 2014

insights (30.8% satisfaction compared with 41.0% for

domestic) and targeting options (33.6% vs. 51.3%)—

measures that may also reflect the relative lack of sec-

ond-party—and especially third-party—data in markets,

particularly outside the U.S. In addition to consumer

insights, brands and agencies tend to be least satisfied

with the pricing advantages available through global

programmatic. This may be because the economics of

programmatic are most favorable in higher-cost domes-

tic markets, where the efficiency benefits of automated

buying yield larger savings relative to the overall spend.

Still, similar disparities exist in every area of functionality,

suggesting a more pervasive discontent.

As with domestic programmatic, providers of global

programmatic technology tend to focus on more

narrowly defined tools, with just a few seeking to build

complete solutions. Still, working with fewer vendors

remains the goal for most brands and agencies. “You

can have one core technology globally, and there’ll

always be others you might have to integrate into it for

viewability, third-party data or other requirements,” says

Mr. Brown of DataXu. “I understand why people might

feel that one technology might be better in a given

market than another, but the right core functionality

CUTTING BACK ON TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS

“We may work with a special partner here and there for a particular region or purpose,

such as a keyword targeting tool for EMEA or a fraud detection tool for North America,

but we’re strict about using only one DSP. It used to be that, when a campaign ended, the

intelligence stayed with the five or eight tools we’d worked with, and we had no visibility

into this intelligence we’d built with our own budget. So we made the strategic decision to

go with one preferred partner.”

—Valentina Pettenati, director of integrated media for EMEA/MEE, SAP

Figure 6WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM A PROGRAMMATIC VENDOR?Please rate how important each of the following is when selecting programmatic technology vendors.

80.1% 78.1%79.8% 77.2% 76.4% 72.4% 71.2% 68.4% 66.2% 65.0%

Targeting options

Analytics and reporting

capabilities

Inventory quality

Reach and/or scale

Pricing Operational efficiency

Inventory transparency

Consumer insights

Creative formats

Privacy

7.887.958.168.078.208.358.388.348.598.62

Base = 351 respondents. Chart based on 8-to-10 ratings, where 1 = not at all important and 10 = extremely important

• Average rating

DataXu 11December 2014

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and scalable technologies can be replicated in local mar-

kets just as well as a local provider could do, with the

advantages of fewer tools and relationships to manage,

and greater consolidation and standardization.”

Still, finding that preferred partner is not always a

simple task. “It’s not hard to find an integrated system

for a marketer—the challenge comes if you want best-

in-class in every discipline, from ad serving to dynamic

creative optimization to bidding on public and private

exchanges,” says Mr. Journey of DataXu. “Do you add

together all the best parts or just do it the easy way?

Nobody ever got fired for buying Google, but they’re

trying to dominate by owning all the data. Do you want

all your data to be owned by one company and have to

rent it back from them?”

The major tool selection criteria most often mentioned

in the Ad Age survey include targeting options (80.1%),

analytics and reporting capabilities (79.8%) and inven-

tory quality (78.1%), but respondents placed slightly

different emphasis when it comes to the criteria for

actually using these tools (Figure 6). These include pro-

tection against ad fraud (72.1%), appropriate skill sets

on team (69.9%) and guaranteed brand safety (68.1%).

Evolving Agency Relationships and Internal StructuresThe adoption of programmatic buying is also show-

ing up in its impact on the relationships in a brand’s

extended marketing organization. “We see a lot of

different models,” says DataXu’s Mr. Brown. “Bringing

programmatic in-house is a hot topic, and many brands

have done this successfully. But agencies often retain

strong relationships with their clients nonetheless, such

as becoming involved in strategy and tool selection.”

It’s hardly a novelty for brand-agency relationships

to be described in other than black-and-white terms,

and the variability and subjectivity of these partnerships

comes through in the Ad Age survey. While a majority

of both agencies and brands agree that the agency

takes the lead on global policies for implementation,

measurement, and reporting and analysis, marketers are

much more likely to give themselves credit for playing

this role while agencies are more likely to describe the

relationship as collaborative. This is especially true for

strategy, which almost half of agencies describe as a

collaboration, compared with fewer than one-third of

their clients.

Coming up to speed on programmatic tools and

strategies is imperative for every element within the

advertising ecosystem—including technology provid-

ers, which have an increasingly important role to play.

Respondents to the Ad Age survey report that agencies

and technology vendors are the most important sources

for education in programmatic technologies, but it’s a

group effort. “Education happens through a virtuous

circle—technology providers, brands and agencies are

learning together as we move through the space,”

Mr. Brown says. “A technology company can’t say that

they’re the arbiters of everything programmatic because

the expertise and strategy coming from brands and

agencies are equally critical to help raise the level of

understanding.”

At SAP, an Integrated Media team within the brand

PROGRAMMATIC’S PRESSURE ON MARKETING ECOSYSTEMS

“There’s a lot of pressure on the economics of the marketing ecosystem. Marketers want

to pay less, procurement people are getting involved in these decisions—it’s getting harder

for agencies to make money. Increasing transparency on price, data, inventory and supply

can expose a lot of the obfuscation that can happen in the digital environment.”

— Bruce Journey, co-founder and chief customer officer, DataXu

DataXu 12December 2014

experience group works with marketing stakeholders

on any campaign. “We view the relationship among

our group, our agency and our DSP as a three-legged

stool, with Integrated Media taking the lead from a

client perspective,” Ms. Pettenati says. “Having a direct

relationship with our DSP does require a lot of work in

terms of understanding the impact of every decision,

but it’s a matter of knowing what you want. Our team

has a strong technical understanding of media and

knew what we wanted—from top-level strategy to exe-

cution, trafficking and tracking—so it was just a matter

of getting it done.”

It would be natural to expect that the transforma-

tion of marketing through programmatic would bring

a similar change in organizational structure. In reality,

almost 62% of the brands and agencies responding to

the Ad Age survey are not restructuring departments or

their organizations to take advantage of programmatic

technologies. This may be because they have initially

focused on the changing nature of the agency-client

relationship. It may also be that more organizations

will restructure as the sophistication and extent of their

programmatic strategies increase going forward.

In the meantime, the approaches brands and

agencies are using to incorporate programmatic into

their organizations vary widely. Some are weaving

programmatic tools and practices into existing groups

while others are creating specialized teams or centers of

excellence, as at SAP. Some brands are outsourcing to

agencies with the spending power to invest in high-end

programmatic tools, while others are developing propri-

etary tools of their own.

Looking Ahead: MarketingBecomes Programmatic The share of budgets allocated to programmatic

buying is growing steadily in both domestic and interna-

tional markets, as is the use of digital media (Figure 7).

“Programmatic is being adopted beyond specific tactics

and audiences to become a true strategy for brands,

and we’ll see that increase and spread beyond digital

into TV and other areas,” DataXu’s Mr. Brown says. “It’s

a development process as brands work to gain access

and aggregate the right kinds of historical and real-time

data to inform the strategy, but it’s a constant topic for

CMOs and CEOs these days.”

Ms. Pettenati says SAP is also seeing growth in pro-

grammatic spending. “We expect programmatic to be

a much bigger percentage of our ad spend,” she says.

“With our direct DSP relationship, we’ll be able to keep

the data on our campaigns. We’ll also be able to run

multiple campaigns out of the same platform and do

things at massive scale, such as to integrate sequential

messaging and perform dynamic optimization.“

As they increase their programmatic spending,

marketers also expect to see higher-quality inventory,

continuing a strong trend. Almost two-thirds of brands

and agencies report seeing higher-quality inventory on

open exchanges internationally now compared with

two years ago, and 81.8% anticipate even higher quali-

ty two years from now.

This growth in programmatic comes as market-

ers continue to try to remove stumbling blocks that

can make it difficult to realize the full potential of the

technology. Key pain points cited in the Ad Age survey

PROGRAMMATIC SPENDING FORECAST

What percentage of your domestic and international digital media budgets is handled programmatically?

Two years ago

Currently

Estimated two years from now

DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL MARKET MARKET

44.4% 11.7%

51.1% 20.0%

56.2% 29.8%

Figure 7

Base = 351 respondents. Chart based on average percents.

DataXu 13December 2014

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include the need for standardization of measurement

accountability across programmatic vendors, with

52.7% strongly believing that objectively comparing

programmatic results is difficult when buying interna-

tionally. Similarly, three-quarters (75.8%) are standardiz-

ing or attempting to standardize measurement account-

ability across programmatic vendors; almost three out of

five (59.8%) respondents report they do not yet use a

single centralized reporting tool to pull together all their

domestic and international programmatic vendors and

channels into one dashboard.

While marketers will need to overcome problems with

data integration and standardization, particularly on the

global front, programmatic will help alleviate the risks

associated with questionable publishers and viewability.

“Early in digital marketing, people faced the problem

of not knowing a given geographic region and whether

they were reaching the right customers—or any custom-

ers. Programmatic will help bring a layer of transparency

for marketers working with a trusted partner and remove

some of the historic challenges of adopting digital execu-

tion in new markets,” says DataXu’s Mr. Brown.

As the programmatic revolution continues its rapid

advance, Ms. Pettenati paints a vivid picture of a better

life for brands and agencies—and especially their cus-

tomers—in every part of the world. “Our prospects aren’t

just important in terms of where they are in the funnel,”

she says. “We want them to have a good experience

across all touch points and not retarget them with things

they’re not interested in. We can do that better if we

integrate with our own data. This is where programmatic

becomes a completely unique tool for SAP, helping us de-

liver the most relevant content and the best user journey

to our prospects. Before, we could only do these things

campaign by campaign. Now, they can be the norm.”

Moving a programmatic strategy from domestic to over-

seas markets has its pitfalls, but following established

best practices can help reduce the risk. Some marketing

pros who’ve already traveled the road offer advice on

how to get started and keep the programmatic momen-

tum going.

• Get started and keep moving.

“Don’t get freaked out by the complexity of it,” says

MasterCard’s Mr. Jankowski. “You’re always better off

doing something. In this market, you can test yourself

to the point of paralysis because there are so many

things you can do.

“It’s impossible to conduct an empirical, closed-end

test of every alternative for every part of the stack.

Instead, find a partner you can be successful with, start

working with it, learn with it and then decide where

you want to go next.”

Best Practices forGlobal Programmatic

‘Programmatic will help bringa layer of transparency formarketers working with atrusted partner and remove some of the historic challenges of adopting digital executionin new markets.’

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• Find a partner you can trust.

“When it comes to fraud protection, aside from the

use of specific tools, a strong partnership can put you

in a better position than working with a lot of differ-

ent DSPs,” says Ms. Pettenati of SAP. “A higher-level

relationship means that it’s not just on us to make sure

that the data is right and that there’s no pixel fraud—

there are more eyes on your campaign, so you can be

more confident you’re running in the right places. This

is especially important overseas, where you see more

fragmentation and smaller websites, and you have less

control over what’s running.”

• Don’t overgeneralize.

“A key challenge is to understand that it’s not one-size-

fits-all in terms of execution across different regions,”

says Mr. Journey of DataXu. “You need to be nimble

and adaptive to meet the specific needs of a given mar-

ket. Don’t look for too many global generalizations—it’s

crucial to have local expertise. If you look at Fortune

500 companies, they’re all structured around regions,

and the marketing functions there all do things differ-

ently, from strategy to creative; what works in Japan

might not work in Korea. Build your programmatic

strategy on adaptable, flexible technologies and variable

standards that let you tweak your execution for local

markets and work with local partners as needed.”

• Focus on audiences, not websites.

“In international markets, people can worry about not

knowing what websites they’re running on. We explain

that we go for audiences, not websites—which fits per-

fectly in SAP’s strategy, but people are uncomfortable

letting it happen,” Ms. Pettenati says. “We try to ac-

commodate requests for specific sites—we look at pri-

vate exchanges and whitelists—but it’s key not to let it

take over. Whitelisting can be a relevant part of your ap-

proach; but if you do too much of that, you lose what

programmatic is all about. It lowers volumes, increases

prices and doesn’t leave much room for optimization. It

may feel safer at the beginning, but it backfires.”

• Find the right approach for your organization.

“Brands that are getting it right are being careful about

the partners they work with and how they work with

them,” says Mr. Brown of DataXu. “Make sure you have

the right solution for what you want to do as a marketer.

Some brands want to do things in-house because it’s the

right approach for them; others prefer to work with an

agency.

“Sometimes people get confused trying to do what

they perceive to be the ’right’ thing. Programmatic isn’t

a particular way of working, in-house or out. It’s going

through your own learning curve and understanding the

right way forward for your business.”

HAVE YOUR ASSETS IN ORDER

“To move into another market, it isn’t a problem to find a partner—it’s more about

having the assets in place to be successful. Do you know how to activate a sale in the

channel? Do you have the content to get someone to click? The issue is that many of

these markets don’t have data about buying preferences or habits; they’re not as evolved

as the U.S. in being able to understand buyer behaviors. We focus on countries where we

know we have the assets to execute a campaign successfully.”

—Raj Rao, global VP, eTransformation, 3M

ABOUT THE SURVEY Advertising Age and DataXu commissioned this online research study about global programmatic. The study was conducted from Aug. 19 to Sept. 12, 2014, by third-party research firm Advantage Business Research. The final findings are based on 351 respondents made up of 65% marketers and 35% agencies. The margin of error for the total 351 respondents of the survey, at a 95% confidence level, is +/- 5.2 percentage points.

DataXu 14December 2014

WHITE PAPER

Written by J. Daniel JanzenDesigned by Gregory CohaneResearch by Eniko Skintej and Jeff Demarest

CONTACT US

Karen EgolfEditorial DirectorContent Strategy Studiokegolf@adage.com

Alex McGrathSenior Account Executiveamcgrath@adage.com

ABOUT DATAXU

DataXu is a petabyte-scale marketing cloudthat enables marketers to better understand and engage their customers. Powered by Active Analytics, our patented approach to programmatic marketing, the DataXu Marketing Cloud is a suite of applications that transform big data into better customer experience—at the speed of life. Our software helps marketers focus their marketing investments and achieve optimal results across all available media formats, devices, channels and buying modes. With 13 offices in nine countries, DataXu is powering the digital transformation ofthe world’s most valuable brands. Visit www.dataxu.com for more information.

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