The progrennaissance is here

Programmatic is undergoing a rebirth, and I can’t wait. For many years, nascent programmatic technologies have struggled to keep up with the ‘you dream it, we sell it’ sales attitude set by digital ad sellers of the 2000s, leading to a lack of cohesion between the two main ingredients of our industry; data and bidding technology. 

Having more access to data was supposed to be the lifeblood of programmatic – it was meant to enable everyone to win. We all wanted better yields for content creators, better audience access for marketers, and a more relevant experience for consumers.

Unfortunately, the data that powered this supposed ‘virtuous cycle’ was a 3rd party cookie, which (along with an infinite trail of long tail inventory) created a sad disconnect between what is promised on a sales deck vs the actual business outcomes being driven. 

Did cookie data within programmatic generally deliver higher performing media? Was a cookie data segment easy to deliver for an ad ops person? Did it deliver likelier sales? Did it create value to the media owner or the advertiser? Did it deliver a better experience for the user? It would be generous to say a blanket ‘yes’ to any of these questions at any point in the last 10 years, which is frankly ludicrous.