LONDON —  Advertiser interest in programmatic is growing, but more work needs to be done to better describe and allay fears over the phenomenon, says an exec representing both buy- and sell-side.

The make-up of attendees to an Internet Advertising Bureau UK conference on the topic has gone up from 10% advertisers last year to 40% this year, IAB UK data and industry programmes head Steve Chester tells Beet.TV.

“There’s still a bit of fear around how it works,” he says. “A key advertiser said it sounds like the techies are taking over. Marketers are quite fearful that they are losing control.

“It’s not about that. It’s about human decision-making but using data on top … to make informed decisions.” Chester says programmatic can bring much-needed efficiencies to an online ad process that takes too many steps just to get an ad online.

This video was recorded  at the Beet.TV programmatic video leadership summit sponsored by Videology, hosted by Xaxis at the London offices of GroupM.