Combining native advertising with programmatic buying isn't going to work and will result in mediocre advertorial at best.
That's the view of Peter Birch, MD at 4th Screen Australia, part of Mobile Embrace.
Native and programmatic vied for biggest advertising buzzword of 2013. Now it appears that, with the lack of a challenger buzzword, the market aims to force them together. ProgrammaticNativeMobile (PNM) could be the media industry acronym of 2014.
There's just one problem. It's almost impossible to automate native advertising, reckons Birch.
Not everyone is of the same view.
The native mobile ad exchange
This week global mobile adverting network InMobi and Rubicon Project launched the InMobi Exchange, touting it as the 'world's first mobile exchange that supports the buying of mobile native ads at an unprecedented global scale'.
While some might suggest it sounds like throwing in the words programmatic and native into a sentence to make it look better than it actually is, Birch was reluctant to comment on a competitor's business. But he warned AdNews that those kind of developments could risk creating mediocrity when mobile advertising, given the personal nature of the device, needed to be tailored.
“For me native advertising is creating relevance for the brand within the context of that site. If it's going to work well, it's about creating content that benefits the audience just as much as it benefits the brand. In other words creating content that audience is actually interested in.”
Automating that is “virtually impossible to do brilliantly” reckoned Birch.
“You could probably create what could be called a native ad unit, it's about sports and you put it into a sports site. But that approach just nurtures average ad units and will therefore deliver average performing campaigns. I’d be very interested to see why that is native advertising and not simply a well placed display ad.”
Telstra's challenge
Telstra's Adam Good recently articulated the challenge. Native and programmatic must merge in mobile advertising he said, but we're not there yet.
“Programmatic is obviously an essential part of driving reach, but the challenge is making the mobile execution effective and reaching the right audience. It is this question mark which means those dollars are not transferring completely over to mobile yet," Good, director of digital media & content at the Telco, told an audience at AdTech Sydney.
“In the digital world, I don't think it's right that the robots are just going to find some matching sort of data, choose the right creative and just stick it in without the context, at least not yet,” Good added.
Collaborate with publishers or hamstring mobile advertising
For native advertising to go beyond average it needs to work hand in glove with publishers, said Birch.
“To really create something that’s stand out, that delivers high engagement, a highly effective campaign that doesn't alienate [the individual], there’s only one way to do that. You must involve the people that really understand it. That’s the publisher.
“By automating [native mobile ads via] a platform you're just going to be making a lot of assumptions. It's not going to be high-end creative and it's not going to resonate in the same way. [It will just end up] promoting average ad units.”
That is the last thing that mobile advertising needs at this “crucial stage,” said Birch. His warning comes as mobile advertising companies stand on the cusp of making good money. Mobile Embrace posted a net profit of $1.62 million for the six months to 31 December and recently raised $11.75m to fund growth. The worry is that by turning people off mobile advertising with mediocre advertising, the opportunity will be lost.
Across the piste, Birch's assessment of automated media buying was frank.
'Criminal' media buys or giving clients what they pay for?
“It's an absolute crime what some people are buying. There's a big focus on price rather than quality.”
That is true of media buying whether automated or not, he said. Media buyers have suggested that traditional publishers are asking a vast premium for audiences they can pick up elsewhere at a fraction of the price. But Birch stressed that content makes a difference to how engaged those audiences may be.
“There is good or premium content or then there is rubbish content. You can advertise [with a premium magazine publisher] with fantastic writers, unique content, great imagery, design and a highly engaged audience that choose to go to those specific sites rather than just fall into them. How can you price those the same?”
That 'all inventory is not the same' is the drum that big publishers keep banging in the face of audiences being bought more cheaply elsewhere and destroying their margins.
Birch said it's true and therefore inventory must be priced accordingly.
“If the market does that then programmatic will work very well for all publishers. If it doesn't then I think [publishers have] got some challenges.”
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