2025 Programmatic Predictions

Retail media

This is probably the biggest area of growth from a display perspective, although brands might have to reconsider the gap between their product owners, stock managers and marketing coordinators, because this is not only paid media bought programmatically, but this is a link between the media buying and other departments: Retail Media is delivering display ads onto the retailer website where the product is in stock. For instance if a beauty brand is available in Boots, we can address users with ads on the Boots website, and maximise ROAS as users are always browning the site, or looking at the category. Retail Media can also go the extra mile, if we think of Marriot Hotels chain for instance, where we can access their Wi-Fi network, or hotel lobby with OOH screens, and still overlay data on top. It’s really innovative and there are unforeseen options available when it comes to retail media. By far the most exciting trend in my opinion! It ticks so many boxes too: Display campaigns, traditionally top of funnel, are moving lower down the funnel, with exclusive access to premium inventory, and supercharged with brand safety, as the delivery is 100% transparent.

Amazon DSP

Not completely new, but now more established and operationally safe to use and growing massively in the UK as well, bridging the gap between the product team usually working on Amazon and programmatic trading teams. With the Amazon DSP we can target an audience based on what they browse and buy on the amazon app and site, and use this as buying signals. Because Amazon works as a walled garden solution, there is no other platform on the market who can claim to have this level of data, and buying signals are the most powerful set of data we can use, all first party too, so there is no concern about privacy nor cookie challenges. Because we can drive traffic to and out of Amazon, there is a boulevard of opportunities for brands to tap into, in particular any e-com or retail brands.

CDP

A new acronym coming to the digital advertising world, promising a lot of exciting opportunities, not only programmatic: CDP stands for Customer Data Platform, could be perceived as an improved version of DMP ( data management platform). Savvy brands will be familiar with the terms, and we can dive into more details about the CDP: while DMP were quite innovative until 2020s, they have been questioned due to cookie deprecation, as the fundamental of a DMP is to aggregate and consolidate data from various sources and third parties, so very much cookie reliant. So a DMP allows brand to build segments and personas based on aggregate of third party audiences, using multiple signals in order to address the right users with programmatic ads. CDP goes further as their core objective is not only to aggregate first party data, and to model this data for further reach and scale. Google have recently launched on their own DSP (DV360)  PAIR options, so that advertisers can leverage first party data from publishers,  and the PAIR system is very much a publisher side product. With CDPs, the digital marketers will grow outside of the Google Sandbox, and outside of DMPs, leaning on their first party data, and hopefully breakdown walls between channels ( programmatic, social, search marketing could tap into unified and seamless audience segmentation). All very exciting news, for brands who are savvy and keen to explore more innovative routes for addressing their target audience and leverage their first party data.

AI solutions: Test, test, test… and learn!

The cookie deprecation being cancelled by Google this year after so many years of planning for it, cookie less solutions have been heavily reliant on the rise of AI solutions. Now, the challenge for marketers t will be to test these various AI solutions available on the market, and to make sure to adopt a strong AB test culture for any given media plan really. Ideally keeping 10 to 20 % of a budget towards a new test is the best way to make sure that the majority of the spend goes towards some trusted partners. Time is also crucial, so we’d encourage planners to put together roadmaps in place, with solid opportunities to explore, as AI can be used for so many aspect of programmatic campaigns: Creative copy ( image, text, variations), bidding, targeting (Contextual, behavioral), and even reporting. AI has been using a lot of ink already, now is the time to get hands on, to make the most of it!

Programmatic TV

Programmatic used to be essentially desktop, mobile and tablet campaigns, but the list of contents available programmatically is forever growing: Like OOH is now almost “bread and butter” for programmatic traders, with more inventory, more screens, and the next big step forward for agencies and programmatic traders now available is programmatic TV. Various sources are mentioning that CTV adoption will plateau at some point, because of the market penetration was huge since 2020s. Now both the technology and the opportunity are available for us to tap into: Programmatic TV promises are so very exciting and there are quite a few routes to explore: Channel 4, ITV, but also VOD services like Disney and Prime, as well as Google with YouTube. It means that brands can deliver their video ads on larger screens, leveraging all fundamental pillars from programmatic media buying: Precision targeting, automation in the process, real time reporting and execution, cross device measurement. It also means that TV will eventually be an option to consider for smaller businesses too, achieving the holy grail of mass appeal.