Advertisers focus on premium supply partners in 2021
In 2021, Both the sell and buy sides will more thoroughly evaluate partners as supply and demand path optimization requirements increase in priority
This past year illuminated the need for brands and media owners to build more resilient value chains. The concepts of demand and supply path optimization aren’t new, but they have taken center stage due to the volatile market shifts caused by the pandemic. Strategic leaders on both the sell and buy sides are looking to cull their vendor list and focus on fewer, trusted partnerships.
Optimizing your value chain is not only key to addressing unexpected hurdles — from last-minute programming cancellations to sudden brand safety issues — but also acting swiftly to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Historically, supply path optimization (SPO) was driven by rate efficiency and the need for transparency. Today, the promise of SPO is value addition — to work solely with partners who offer unique benefits, such as premium or exclusive inventory, technical innovation, first-party data, and priority buying.
As buyers gain tighter control over their supply chains, they are not only seeing cost savings, but also improved quality in their buys, particularly in brand safety, viewability, and fraud. Advertisers need to look beyond log-level and impression- level data of particular ad placements and take a broader look at the brand suitability of their various technology partners.
SPO is a key component enabling us to deliver a meaningful media experience in an automated environment. Working with few partners, like SpotX, that enable us to engage with publishers directly means we have a significantly better control on the suitability, context, and content of the media we are buying. In an increasingly complex supply environment, this is critical to achieving success
Media owners streamline the advertiser experience
Buyers are eager to move their budgets to OTT, but the landscape over time has ballooned to involve multiple vendors, resellers, and other technology partners. This adds more fees to the process for both buyers and sellers and ultimately causes more complexity. Media owners looking to distinguish their premium offerings and protect rate cards can simplify the selling process through demand path optimization (DPO), which limits access points to their inventory and establishes efficient, transparent paths for trusted partners
Advanced integrations, such as header bidding, enable programmatic buying at scale while still reserving inventory for direct sales, which minimizes buyer confusion and sales channel conflict. As DPO provides advertiser visibility into the bid path, publishers and their resellers are able to better monitor how ad impressions are purchased.Working with a smaller number of strategic demand partners improves brand safety since there are verified, direct paths ensuring ads are placed with brand-safe content. DPO can also help manage f requency and avoid duplication, as buyers have fewer paths that enable self-competition, reducing the risk of filling an ad pod with the same creative through various monetization paths. This has been a pain point for consumers and advertisers alike, and addressing it will ensure that media owners are delivering on the promise of engaged viewers and efficient campaigns.