SANTA MONICA — For many, the promise is clear – programmatic ad technology is about automating ad operations, leaning back and revelling in efficiency.

If only it were really like that in practice.

In this recorded fireside interview with Tameka Kee at Beet Retreat Santa Monica, Moe Chughtai, Global Head of Advanced TV, MiQ, explains why the quest for “easy” is actually pretty complicated.

It ain’t easy

“There’s a misconception that programmatic is pushing a button and letting the algorithm sort of run a campaign – that’s just not reality,” Chughtai says.

“The reality is, it’s a complex ecosystem and a complex set of problems that you need to activate on.

“The human in the loop is actually probably the most valuable component of a programmatic activation that there is.”

Fragmentation frustration

Chugtai says the plethora of new advertising canvases out there, plus the different routes to access each, means a problem.

“For an advertiser, that means I’ve got to run anywhere between three DSPs on the low end to get scale across streaming in online video, all the way up to five to six DSPs,” he says.

“Programmatic isn’t just automated. I need to go out and train people to do that across six platforms and you need to have six seats and that’s expensive and ridiculous.”

Managed programmatic

So MiQ is playing in the “managed services” end of programmatic, helping customers use the tools for best effect.

MiQ offers programmatic campaign solutions including data analytics, creative build and trading insights, plus analytics and tech solutions.

For example, its customers include Subway, for which it says it increased incremental reach by 11.5% by identifying households exposed to the brand’s linear TV ad, leading to it being able to deliver a CTV ad to non-exposed households.

Programmatic TV Demands An Agnostic Approach: MiQ’s Madorsky

Triple threat

MiQ’s Chugtai says programmatic complexity poses problems to three areas:

1. Planning

“If I’ve got a pot of money to spend, how do I decide what part of that goes to publisher A versus publisher B?,” he says. “The audience data sharing for planning doesn’t exist. So you need third-party sources to be able to plan across capabilities. ”

2. Activation

“(As an advertiser), I’ve got to go train a team of traders to trade on six DSPs. That is an operational nightmare. That makes it really hard to transact in programmatic for CTV.”

3. Measurement

“Measurement’s gotten better, it still has major gaps, especially when it comes to wall garden measurement.”

You are watching coverage of Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2022, presented by Ampersand, MiQ, Nielsen, PubMatic, T-Mobile Advertising Solutions and The Trade Desk. For more videos from the Beet Retreat, please visit this page. 

By Robert Andrews on @robertandrews