It is well known that Connected TV (CTV) has established itself on the market. According to our annual DACH study on the use and spread of Connected TV, the media genre continues to enjoy a very high level of awareness in all advertising-relevant target groups. 80 percent of those surveyed are familiar with CTV, and around a third even use the additional functions (such as streaming or gaming apps) on a daily basis.

But what about programmatic bookability? Programmatic advertising is already being used for CTV campaigns, and the bookings basically follow the online logic. Advertising slots can be booked automatically and played out to specific target groups. In the process, advertising on CTV is placed more contextually and dynamically. A major advantage of the growing medium is also target groups that can no longer be reached via linear TV, such as so-called "cord cutters". They no longer consume conventional TV, but can be targeted with CTV.

Uniform market standards must be further established for CTV. Currently, the online marketing model is used here, although CTV, compared to online, is not a pure one-to-one medium: CTV usage is more similar to TV usage - so several people sit in front of the big screen. There is definitely still work to be done here in terms of education and optimization in order to fully exploit the advantages of the medium.

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) faced a similar challenge, because it is also a reach medium and thus a one-to-many medium, the digital mass medium. What about programmatic implementation there? There are already many programmatic DOOH campaigns, more than half of our DOOH campaigns are already implemented programmatically. Programmatic DOOH enables the automation of ad buying and campaign optimization. Advertisers can optimize their campaigns in real time based on performance data to improve campaign effectiveness.

The big advantage of DOOH is that external data (such as weather, events, external events such as soccer matches) can be used to determine which motif should run at which location. This means that touchpoints are no longer selected in the planning stage; instead, data decides when and where the spot is played. Ultimately, it is not important where the advertising material is played, but that it is present exactly when and where the desired target group is on the move.

In fact, DOOH is a prime example of integration in the programmatic advertising universe, as it is easy to connect to the necessary systems. But what about the other media categories?

In Germany, the adtech landscape is basically well prepared to include the classic genres in the programmatic world. But the specific requirements of each media genre must be taken into account. Although delivery is time-shifted for classic media such as TV, radio and print, this is not a hurdle for automated processing. One challenge is to ensure comparable KPIs and their availability. A DSP alone does not enable targeting. Data plays a crucial role in success, and the crux of the matter is: not all market partners have equal access to it.

In order to standardize "new channels" for programmatic, it is also important that the industry creates common standards to provide advertisers with easy and comprehensible access. Initiatives already exist for DOOH, such as IDOOH, which was founded in 2022. It is an advocacy group for digital outdoor advertising that has created common standards and a currency to make the medium transparent, easy to book and integrate.

There is basically a lot of potential in the programmatic cosmos, because due to the current economic situation, KPIs are becoming more and more relevant in media planning to be able to prove the efficiency of advertising. However, there are still some challenges to be overcome in order to ensure uniform measurability and comparability. Common standards and initiatives are therefore important steps to integrate all media genres into the programmatic world.

A guest article by Managing Director Goldbach, Frank Möbius. Published on Adzine: https://www.adzine.de/2023/05/programmatic-ist-in-aller-munde-aber-ist-jede-mediengattung-programmatisch-buchbar/