Ryan Menezes, Chief Technology & Transformation Officer at GroupM:

— There’s an AI for that! Marketers need to move past programmatic bidding algorithms and leverage AI to make more informed and predictive decisions (not reactive).

– Technology is humanised with advertisers battling for attention – Death of the cookie will mean less is more – access to limited data-sets but marketers can expect higher quality of enriched data. This should accelerate the move to mass personalisation and few will succeed in this attention economy by being authentic and relevant content.

– Programmatic practitioners start holding themselves accountable – less fluffy media metric and more oversight and optimisations towards business outcomes

Tim Armstrong, Head of Digital Audience and Monetisation at Nova Entertainment:

— Growth: This is a no brainer! Programmatic will continue to grow, for some their approach will be programmatic first, buyers already have the technologies to include audio into their buys and we’ll see audio become another component on the plan. There is hope that in support of this we might see a broader lens applied in the form of audio everywhere budgets.

– Data: Like every other programmatic channel the appetite for data driven campaigns will continue to grow, efficacy in spend this year will be a key priority. The market narrative will default along the same lines as video and fixate on delivering a tailored advertising experience for listeners, but the same infrastructural pitfalls and environmental limitations exist.

– Diversification: Previously many ad tech companies didn’t see a large opportunity in the audio space, this was mainly driven by digital audio not being a large channel in the US. Many ad tech businesses cashed in on the video opportunity especially in APAC and in 2021 I’m sure we’ll see the same grab at audio, with platforms diversifying to include audio and capitalising on the opportunity here.

Sarah Wyse, General Manager Digital at AFL:

-Whilst this has been a trend over the past few years I think in-housing of programmatic initiatives will see greater uptake as brands invest more into their own first-party data, identity and CRM.

-And why stop with programmatic media trading? Creative technologies that optimise assets will play a more important role, again driving “in-housing” of production and adoption of creative management platforms to help create and distribute fit for purpose targeted creative

-As a result of abolishment of cookies- there will be a move to shift some of the ad dollars into branded content and sponsorships. After the COVID era, brands will need to re-build, connect and renew relationships with their customers and nothing does this better than storytelling.

Imran Masood, Country Manager AUNZ at DoubleVerify:

– Quality vs Quantity: Media quality will become a prerequisite to advertising spend. No longer a “nice to have”, it will become the foundation that ensures brands are well-positioned to engage the right consumers at scale while keeping their brand reputation protected online. As more advertisers seek premium media placements, the level of trust and transparency in the programmatic advertising space increases. This helps create confidence for brands in their digital media investments.

– Video everywhere: Current measurement technology in video leaves many video impressions either unmeasured or unprotected. While this problem is evident across all video, it is even greater in CTV and mobile app environments. This is due to the fact that measurement standards for these technologies aren’t currently widely adopted and blocking still isn’t possible. As we move into the new year, we expect to see a greater demand for solutions that offer better measurement and brand protection across all video environments.

– A shift away from third-party audience targeting: Stringent, ongoing data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, along with the decision by most web browsers to sunset the use of third-party cookies, are ushering in a universal shift away from third-party audience targeting. Contextual targeting saw major leaps over the past year and is becoming an essential part of the future-ready ad ecosystem. In 2021, contextual will break through as identity-based advertising is reformed.

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To find out more on the programmatic innovations and challenges around connected TV, out of home, brandside and more, check out the agenda for the upcoming Programmatic Summit 2021.