NDA, in partnership with Xandr, is collecting the views of some of our industry’s leading figures for their predictions on 2022 and beyond. Next up is Paul De La Nougerede, Snr Director, Publisher Operations, The Ozone Project.
What consumer behavioural change over the last 18 months will be the most important for shaping a brand’s digital advertising strategy in 2022?
The pandemic raised awareness of misinformation over the internet and we saw trusted publishers reaching record audiences as people sought not just information, but entertainment to guide them through one of the most dramatic periods of recent history.
This was accompanied by one of the fastest moves of consumer behaviour to digital channels as everything from services to retail and food shopping went online. Keeping on top of these changes and the expectations of consumers of what a digital experience looks like will be one of the biggest challenges for brands in 2022.
SPO has been a top priority for buyers for many years, how has the demise of the third-party cookie accelerated SPO efforts?
Third-party cookies concentrated power to a middle layer of ad tech that took value away from the most important parts of the transaction, the consumer, the advertiser and the publisher. Without third party cookies, advertisers will need to seek out publisher partnerships that can deliver first-party data at scale and allow them to connect to their consumers.
This can’t be done in the open market so SPO has become an initiative that requires conversations not just spreadsheets. Losing the third party cookie could be the best thing to happen to the industry!
What will be the biggest changes to the supply path in 2022?
Advertisers and publishers will become much closer partners and relationships will be more important than ever. We have been living with an internet that has not only made our conversations online anonymous but our business relationships anonymous through algorithmic decision making.
Supply path optimisation can open up new and interesting discussions between advertisers and publishers that were lost when everything was bought anonymously on the open marketplace. They will be able to innovate with new metrics that drive engagement and attention and retake the value that was lost to the middle. Both advertisers and publishers will benefit from these changes.
What are the most important factors for a healthy supply path?
It has become more important than ever before to know where you are spending your money. In the conversations we are involved in, advertisers are looking for transparent and trustworthy supply paths that don’t put their brand at risk but places their advertising in environments that add value through new meaningful metrics.
Trust and transparency are thus the building blocks of a healthy supply path.
