The debate around the independence of advertising companies will increase dramatically over the coming years, according to the boss of programmatic company TubeMogul.
Speaking to M&M Global in Cannes, TubeMogul co-founder and chief executive Brett Wilson said the consolidation of players in the ad tech has opened up the debate on potential conflicts of interest.
Independence in advertising is a topic that will come up. Two years ago, there were thousands of companies in the ad tech space. Theres been a lot of consolidation and its a lot clearer who the winners are going to be, said Wilson.
Our largest competitors are media owners that have an incentive to bias their own media, so there is going to be a debate about how important independence is for marketers building out their tech stacks.
TubeMogul is today (22 June) hosting a debate at the Cannes Lions on whether brands should bring their programmatic media systems in-house, with contributions from Mondelez and Heinken marketing directors.
Advertisers are excited about the idea of increasing efficiency, especially with the rise of programmatic TV, but all companies must reassess their models to ensure they make the most of the opportunity, he said.
When you have software that essentially enables advertisers to do more with less, where you have ad agency models that charge based on heads, there is often a conflict there. So the business models are evolving, albeit slower than the technology is, said Wilson.
He added that, despite the breakneck pace of growth in programmatic and online video, the industry is still figuring out how best to monetise the opportunity: Theres still a lot to do. Theres a tonne of growth in connected devices like Apple TVs and video-on-demand but the problem is we havent as an industry how to monetise the areas where we have the biggest growth.
Most CMOs will tell you video is the way they sell insurance and cars, and win hearts and minds, but we havent made the planning and buying of video across screens as easy as it could be yet.
