Tamás Ács, Cadreon: "Local publishers often own very valuable data about their readers which can be more efficient than data from 3rd party data providers "

iCEE.news Insights: Brand Safety in The Programmatic Era

YouTube’s recent ad problems gave iCEE.news the opportunity to develop the “Brand Safety” topic and address it to the CEE region.

Major media agencies from Romania shared their thoughts on the subject. We found also that “Digital is rising by 27% YoY in Bulgaria.

Now iCEE.news went further, this time to Hungary, and talked with Tamás Ács, Head of Cadreon CEE (the IPG Mediabrand‘s Ad Tech unit, responsible for developing programmatic technology solutions).

Do you believe in the theory that the entire digital advertising industry will automate?

According to Magna Global forecast, by 2020 globally 57% of all banner display and video advertising will be programmatic.

So definitely there will remain place for non-automated advertising as well for many years still.

I think that the technology behind automated/ programmatic guarantee still needs to develop and I can imagine that some special branding initiatives, special collaborations or sponsorships will still remain non-automated in the long run, but the 57% penetration will continue to grow strongly.

What can we learn from the recent events, regarding YouTube’s ad context problems?

People always knew that brand safety is important, especially in the automated world but I think many market players just realized that brand safety really needs careful interventions, and not only in YouTube.

“We, at Cadreon aim to provide the highest-level measures to ensure that not only every impression is relevant for the user but also safe for the advertiser” Tamás Ács, Cadreon

How do you see the global giants of programmatic (Facebook and Google) in the overall strategy? How do you position Cadreon – a partner of a competitor, versus the “walled gardens of data” Google and Facebook are building?

Cadreon has made a significant investment in tools and technology.

Our open approach delivers the most comprehensive, highest-performing programmatic solutions in the market.

Programmatic specialists leverage Unity, our proprietary programmatic buying suite to set-up, manage and evaluate campaigns across different DSPs, across video, display, mobile and social, and also across „walled gardens”.

This technology’s agnostic approach delivers the ability to deploy campaigns with a level of flexibility, accessing any inventory, data, available including Google and Facebook as well.

Are the local websites the solution in order to have a better control over the content? Or the local inventory is fading away and Google and Facebook will take over the local ecosystems too?

We believe local inventories are very important as, especially thorough private market places, we can guarantee higher transparency, brand safety and viewability for our clients.

Also local publishers often own very valuable data about their readers which can be more efficient than data from 3rd party data providers.

Besides, high impact ad formats and video inventories can be also differentiating factors for them.

“In my opinion if local publishers invest in the above mentioned areas and do not disadvantage programmatic traffic, they can stand out even in the crowded programmatic space” Tamás Ács, Cadreon

Programmatic allocates local inventory owners with a technology that enables them to compete with the global giants in the ring of automated buying.

What’s your strategic approach on programmatic vs hand-picked websites vs creativity and brand marketing?

Programmatic is able to deliver according to branding and performance KPIs as well.

The different phases of the customer engagement have one matching point, the CUSTOMER.

I always say that we do not manage campaigns, but we manage RELATIONSHIPS with our clients’ customers.

“Using data, technology and our skilled professionals’ brain we deliver the most relevant brand or performance messages to users across screens” Tamás Ács, Cadreon

And creativity is just one piece of this puzzle which can be very relevant and impactful as well.

Our strategy is to provide complex solutions for our clients’ problems and can contain several services, data management services, dynamic messaging, programmatic media etc. with the sole aim to support our clients’ business goals.

How your local media agencies are facing the challenge of moving in the programmatic area?

What sets Cadreon apart from the competition is how the teams are organized and seamlessly integrated with our local media agencies.

Cadreon is known for being first to market with multiple technologies and developing a unique product offering.

Globally there are over 80 product and technology employees who are continuously evaluating DSP and technology partners and developing data-focused products.

Our local media agencies work closely together with Cadreon International and regional competence centres, making use of their experience and knowledge which combined with local market knowledge and relations creates a unique opportunity for our clients.