Top Quotes from Netric Customers and Team in 2018
2018 has been another great year for us at Netric - and by way of summarising it, we’ve put together a list of quotes from all of the interviews we’ve run on the blog, with both customers and our own team. It’s a small illustration, we hope, of all the great work going on in online advertising across the Nordics - and we look forward to even more of the same next year:
January - Aller Media Programmatic Head Sassy Ferreira Berild on the future of programmatic:
“For the future, my hope is that programmatic becomes more creative. We’re all agreed that data is the future, but not so much around how it’s used. If we have all this information, why not use it creatively?
“I think there’s a lot more we could be doing than just micro-targeting, which for better or worse has become synonymous with programmatic.
“For instance, what about personalising the way we speak to a specific audience, instead of just the brand that reaches them?”
February - Netric CEO Daniel Ahlbert On 1st price auctions and SPO:
“Put differently, even if we still believe 2nd price auctions need to play a part, competitors using 1st price mean our customers lose out – so our hand is forced – and we must of course also embrace this way of working.
“But we won’t just rest there – we will do all we can to mitigate fall out, keeping buyers engaged by bringing SPO to play like via the acquisition of nToggle. Because, though some of our competitors may not consider longer-term market effects, we are firmly invested in buyers’ continued involvement.”
March - Netric Sales Engineer Thomas Nikitin on how the Nordic markets caught up:
“Coming from being a VP of Engineering at a publisher – one that was working closely with its ad team - I would say the Nordics are now in a really advanced position.
“There was a time a few years ago where we were operating in a bit of a bubble. But that has changed so much since, we’re almost unrecognisable from where we were back then. If you don’t believe me, just look at the speed publishers here have adopted ads.txt, or how quickly they’ve moved to using prebid header bidding setups.
“I also think the Nordic markets are getting a lot smarter in general about what they bring in house, and where they work with trusted third parties to hit targets and keep improving their service.”
May - Scream Mediabyrå Programmatic Business Manager Katherine Lundin on constant change and agency business models:
“In the industry we work in, constant change is a fact of life. And we would all be a lot better off if we could just get comfortable with that.
“On that note, what used to be standard practice – media agencies charging based on percentage of media spend – could well be on the way out.
“For a while now, brands have been complaining about percentage fees resulting in a lack of transparency. Not to mention increasing the potential for undisclosed rebates and arbitrage. But it’s actually the consultancies moving into this space that is finally causing a major shift.”
June: Tori.fi Programmatic & Network Manager Jasse Marin on header bidding:
“For us, to begin with it was simply about giving buyers more flexibility and being wherever they were. First it was standard formats, then mobile, then rich media, then video – and now header bidding.
“At this point, programmatic is a significant part of the overall sales pie at Tori. Pretty much everything has become available to trade programmatically. Even if growth has stabilised over time – it was always going to – the pace of change and development in this sector hasn’t slowed at all.”
August: Q&A: Netric New Business Director Ludwig Ekström on the true meaning of innovation:
“Every time there is a new development or technique that is successful, a lot of people will realise the data opportunity there, and how you can manipulate it. But I think what we should actually be doing is using that technical expertise to overcome inefficiencies in the market, improving the ecosystem for all concerned. That is true innovation.”
September: Dilem Güler, Business Development Director, Bonnier News on the rise of programmatic guaranteed:
“There is definitely growing interest in programmatic guaranteed on the buy side. Currently it makes up about 10% of our programmatic sales, but that has really sprung up over the past couple of months.
“The thing is, agencies all have programmatic targets for 2020, and programmatic guaranteed is an effective way to get spend over faster, and scale it measurably over time.”
November – Maria Herrström, Head of Delivery at Netric on what’s next for advertising in the Nordics:
“1. Vertical video ad formats - simply because that is the way we use our phones.
“2. A lot more activity in audio. Podcasting is already huge – and the ad industry is still playing catch up – there is big potential here for original, engaging ads. And I think we will see lots of exciting new stuff around audio in the next year.
“3. And last but not least, out of home aka outdoor – we are talking a lot about this at the moment. Though arguably it hasn’t really broken out yet in terms of programmatic, and there are still discussions here around when the tech is 100% ready for large scale campaigns. But that day is getting closer and closer.”
December – Netric CEO Daniel Ahlbert on the vertical video opportunity for publishers:
“More TV watching is set to become internet-connected. And therefore, even more opportunities around programmatic video are likely to appear.
“Along the way, it’s important we don’t repeat past mistakes, and absolutely get the user experience right. In the case of video, that absolutely means customising creative where it’s consumed on mobile.
“Facebook’s commercial success has largely been down to its ability to manage the shift to a majority of mobile users. Publishers are now doing the same - and vertical video will play a big role there.”
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