CANNES —\u00a0After “programmatic” methods of refining and automating the planning and buying of digital display ads took off, many are wondering when the same technology will get traction in the TV world.<\/p>\n
But that’s the wrong question to ask, according to\u00a0GroupM global chairman Irwin Gotlieb<\/a>. He says the same approaches have been used since TV ad buyers started using\u00a0demographic data in the mid-190s.<\/p>\n “By 1997, we were using optimization tools that used respondent-level data.\u00a0<\/span>We became less focused on context and more focused on audiences,”\u00a0Gotlieb says. <\/span><\/span>“If you use optimization tools\u2026 you can lay some foundation schedules in\u2026 you\u2019re building specific audiences…\u00a0<\/span>You\u2019re looking at a gajillion combinations \u2026 you\u2019re doing some very, very specific work that can only be done systemically. That\u2019s programmatic.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I laughed when one of the other agencies said that, within three years, they would be 50% programmatic. What, have you been living under a rock?\u00a0<\/span>We\u2019ve been 80% programmatic in that regard for 20 years.”<\/span><\/p>\n Gotlieb says real-time programmatic bidding is an unlikely prospect in TV because so much advertising is bought upfront, not in the spur of the moment. But he does think the currency of TV ads will focus more on buying audience profiles, rather than 30-second spot exposures, as TV technology becomes more connected.<\/p>\n Gotlieb was interviewed in this session by Maria Mandel Dunsche<\/a>, VP of Marketing for AT&T AdWorks.<\/p>\n More on the future of television and prospects of dynamic ad insertion in this article<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n