ISBA Launches Guide to Address Lack of Knowledge and Transparency in Programmatic Advertising

ISBA, the voice of British advertisers, today launched its new Programmatic Guide in association with Infectious Media, the international programmatic agency, to help promote greater awareness and understanding of programmatic advertising.

Despite the fact programmatic is set to make up 70 percent of the digital display market this year, ISBA members – which include many of the UK’s leading advertisers – are increasingly concerned that media agencies are not doing enough to educate advertisers on programmatic and promote transparency in their media management practices.

ISBA’s Programmatic Guide, which is the second the body has published with infectious Media, is being launched to address the lack of awareness and offer advertisers the latest thinking on what programmatic is, what they are able to achieve with it and how they can put in place an effective programmatic strategy.

Commenting on the new Guide, Mark Finney, Director of Media & Advertising at ISBA, said:

“Programmatic advertising is growing fast and evolving rapidly, with new developments almost every week.  Many of our members have attended one or more of the five ISBA events we have devoted to the subject over the last three years, and there is still a strong appetite for more information and insight. Our members are concerned about the complex ecosystem and the many challenges (such as ad fraud, viewability, and brand safety) to delivering strong and measurable ROI.

Members are also worried about their media agencies’ lack of transparency, agency trading desks acting as both agent and vendor and the whole issue of rebates. This problem is exacerbated by incomplete disclosure on the part of media agencies regarding their media management practices.  If they made more effort to demystify their processes it might make advertisers less inclined to mistrust.

We hope our second set of guidance will help members ask the right questions of their agency partners in order to create a more open relationship and generate more value from programmatic campaigns.”
 

Martin Kelly, CEO at Infectious Media, said:

“As an international programmatic agency, we work very closely with many of the world’s leading brands. Something we hear a lot from our clients is their frustration with the opaque structures of the traditional global media agencies and the lack of awareness over what programmatic advertising can and should be delivering.

As an industry, we need to work to empower advertisers with the right knowledge, which is exactly what ISBA’s Guide is being launched to do, so they can demand the best standards and take greater control over how their ads are being traded.

ISBA’s Programmatic Guide is split into three volumes; the first explores the current state of programmatic and gives an overview of what the technology is and how it works. The second offers advertisers guidance on how to form an effective programmatic strategy using today’s digital channels, while the third describes the practical considerations needed to put it into action."

To download a copy ISBA’s Programmatic Guide, click here