TC Media announced that it was launching its Canadian Programmatic Marketplace last week. Patrick Lauzon, senior vice-president of interactive marketing platforms, spoke with us about how the company came to the programmatic sphere and what he feels separates his service from the pack.
How did your strategy evolve to bring you to this dynamic space? Patrick Lauzon
First, TC Media acquired Redux Media, the largest and most experienced company in the programmatic marketplace. Now, TC Media’s strategy is to partner with premium publishers, which provides DSPs and trading desks a unique marketplace to find premium and exclusive programmatic supply at scale. We now have a sustainable media business differentiation in Canada with proprietary technology and algorithm (optimization technology and expertise, unique and exclusive data, and analytics), and exclusive supply and demand partnerships and relationships. We are a cross-platform/multichannel (video, mobile, display) one-stop shop.
What are the biggest opportunities in premium inventory in the near term? And how would you even describe premium?
“Premium” is hiqh-quality, in-demand, brand-safe and fraud-free inventory. Multi-channel programmatic access and reporting will be the largest opportunities as advertising dollars continue to shift to programmatic in the short term.
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Recent polls have indicated that as brands learn about the benefits of automated ad sales, they are also learning about brand safety concerns. One third cite the latter as a deterrent from embracing programmatic. Do you see brand safety issues becoming a bigger problem in the broader digital ad ecosystem, and how are you minimizing those risks?
A buyer should not have to worry about fraud when targeting via the programmatic channel. This is why the Canadian Programmatic Marketplace is fully transparent. Since TC Media is managing the technology stack of our marketplace, a buyer can be assured that they their ads will not be served to a non-human user. TC Media has eliminated those risks at the start.
A trend we’re watching is the rise of branding-focused strategies and a shift away from just performance and clicks. What kinds of metrics and KPIs should clients be concentrating on when they focus on branding campaigns?
Clients should concentrate on three metrics or key performance indicators: reaching the right audience via quality inventory across multiple channels; ability to customize digital messaging – delivering the best impact; targeting – intelligence built-in that helps advertisers find the right audience across the ecosystem. All of these will help advertisers to perform better.
