Publishers in Latin America are warming to the idea of programmatic, having previously seen it as a “threat” to inventory prices – but still demand “miracles” from the technology.

That is the view of Jose Luis Valdivelso Pinuaga, chief operating officer at Havas-owned trading desk Affiperf.

Valdivelso Pinuaga was addressing Festival of Media LatAm delegates in Miami alongside MediaMath chief revenue officer Erich Wasserman, in a session entitled ‘Who really holds the power?’

He told the audience: “If you think about it, 12- to 18 months ago, publishers in the region saw programmatic as a threat, but little but little that is changing.

“[When discussing programmatic in Latin America], you have to split it into two. Brazil and Argentina, they are the most advanced in programmatic. Then Mexico and Colombia, and then the rest.

“Advertisers now begin to say they want to do something programmatic, but in most cases what we face that they want to do a test in just a few weeks. They think we can do miracles – this is not the case.”

Outlining the evolution of programmatic technology over the past eight years, Wasserman insisted the objective of programmatic is not to drive prices down, but to hand greater control to buyers.

He also urged the industry to move towards “real business” metrics, judging the success of programmatic activity on sales rather than just clicks: “One of the central tenets is how we drive real business results, rather than those metrics which are exclusively the domain of media.

“The click metric is so pervasive, it’s a horrible metric. But the people in this room have the power to change it,” said Wasserman.