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 Sherif Kader, Managing Partner, OMD EMEA.
SPO has been a top priority for buyers for many years, how has the demise of the third-party cookie accelerated SPO efforts?
SPO has two parts: the people and the technology.
The demise of third-party cookies (or delayed demise) has forced everyone to reassess the technology which I believe has been a big driving force behind more consolidation in the market (the year closed with the Xandr buy for instance) but I am not sure it has done much for the people yet.
From a tech point of view, we’re looking for new solutions, but we probably need to teach some old dogs new tricks first to really see step change in 2022.
What will be the biggest changes to the supply path in 2022?
As programmatic takes a bigger slice of the pie, the biggest changes are likely to come from the long-tail businesses and brands.
Previously, SPO has been mostly driven by big brands and businesses which have deeper pockets and are ‘more at risk’ (in absolute terms).
But the big change for me in 2022 will be the volume of business looking at SPO as a lever to deliver better results (and not just cheaper pricing).
What are the most important factors for a healthy supply path?
Do I dare say it… transparency.
It is THE issue plaguing everyone and it feels like we crawl to fixes and solutions with each passing year.
We are at a point where we have much greater visibility into the black box (tech, media and data costs) but it still feels like we have a long way to go.
With this feeling comes the need for control which leads to advertisers wanting to take control over their investment (eg more in housing).
