Europe is catching up with North America when it comes to the sophistication of programmatic media usage, according to Turn’s Pierre Naggar.
Speaking exclusively to M&M Global, Turn managing director EMEA Naggar said European clients are increasingly taking an “active interest” in programmatic.
Last month, Turn released its latest Advertising Intelligence Report, examining data-driven global marketing trends in the period between April 2014 and March 2015.
The report – based on Turn’s own data from its own Demand-Side Platform – shows that spending on mobile is up 132% year-on-year, while video spending increased 62% on the previous year.
However, programmatic spend in display grew at a slower pace on 17% year-on-year, while social ad spending actually fell by 11%.
In EMEA, Turn found the video market to be “highly competitive” and “fairly stable”, having matured rapidly across the region. That competition can also be seen in the Americas, claims the report, be unpredictability since the New Year suggests brands are focusing on “seasonal opportunities”.
Growing realisation
The increased spending is being driven by a growing realisation of the power of clients’ data, said Naggar: “We’re finding that the conversation has definitely changed in the last 12 months, when it comes to brands.
“It’s fair to say programmatic was adopted initially by the agencies. We’re finding brands and clients now take an active interest and are wanting to understand how the technologies work, and what they can do for their businesses.
Naggar said Turn, whose clients include Kraft, J&J, Red Bull and Thomas Cook, is finding a growing maturity in Europe when it comes to programmatic, while Asian markets are also catching up.
“With EMEA versus US, there was generally a gap of six to 12 months, if you look at the maturity of the market and the number of advertisers spending money across programmatic. That gap has definitely narrowed,” he said.
“Also, if you look in terms of channels, especially in EMEA, there has been a big focus on display. Now video and mobile are catching up. More and more brands understand that, to communicate effectively with consumers, they need to have a cross-channel strategy.”
The next step for advertisers, argues Naggar, is to understand the role that mobile and video communications will play for their brands.
“Sometimes we look at mobile as purely a device – the challenge the industry has to solve is how we deliver relevant and effective formats within mobile devices, which are engaging and not annoying. It’s for brands to learn how people use mobile versus desktop,” he said.
