Advertising Week New York Day 1: Mobile and the Future of Programmatic

By OpenX in Brands & Agencies, Mobile|September 27, 2016

Day 1 of Advertising Week NY is already in the books and the week started off with some great sessions on mobile and the future of programmatic advertising.

All About Mobile

Maggie Mesa, VP Mobile Business Development represented OpenX on a session titled,“The Lion of the Revenue jungle: Mobile Messaging.” With representatives from TUNE, Emogi, Line and Kik, and, moderated by marketing mogul, B. Bonin Bough, the panel addressed how advertisers can advance to where they are able to have a meaningful and engaging interaction with mobile users.

Given market expectations that messaging is going to be larger than social media, the issues of multi-platform opportunities, context, and native ads that help brands tell better stories were discussed candidly. 

Key Takeaway: Messaging apps are allowing marketers to build better direct relationships with consumers, but that the technology hasn’t yet fully developed to enable optimization at scale. 

Following that dynamic discussion, Maggie moderated an OpenX sponsored panel, “Bringing Brands In-App: Here’s what you need to know.” Joined by executives from Cheetah Mobile, MeetMe and TapAd, the conversation centered around how publishers or app-developers can evolve their mobile in-app strategy to find the right balance between monetization and user experience, given that brands are under investing in mobile right now. 

Panelists also identified some of the road blocks brands face in-app and what publishers and app-developers can do to help bridge the gap. Importantly, one of the biggest challenges for publishers and app developers is convincing brands that the data they put forward is real and valuable. 

Key Takeaway:  Accountability and creating better metrics for brands to understand the value of mobile advertising will bring brands in app. As Ian Wu noted “In-app is a more engaging environment, brands shouldn’t be afraid to try it out!”

OpenX at Advertising Week

The Evolution of Programmatic & What to Expect in the Future

At a panel later in the afternoon, Tim Cadogan led a discussion with many of the pioneers in online advertising on the Times Center Main Stage. The session, “The Programmatic Evolution,” took a deep dive into the biggest challenges and opportunities of the online advertising industry and what we can expect to see in the near future. 

Moderated by Berry Liu from Bloomberg News, Tim, along with Greg Raifman, President, Rubicon Project, Scott Howe, President and CEO, Acxiom, Eric Franchi, Co-founder, Undertone and Mark Zagorski, CEO, eXelate, engaged in a lively conversation that touched on the successes of the first decade of programmatic and the opportunities and challenges like ad blocking that we can expect in the next decade. Core to the discussion was the concept, that Tim raised, of needing to help the principle players: the publishers, marketers and consumers reconstruct a relationship that has become a little frayed. As Greg Raifman said, “Advertising has gotten better, but it’s still not good enough for consumers – we’ve got a lot of work to do, and unless we make big changes in creativity and advertising we won’t make strides against ad blocking.” 

For more of the key takeaways on this session: Media Post’s Tobi Elkin wrote this article providing an excellent recap of the lively debate.


About OpenX

OpenX is an independent omni-channel supply-side platform (SSP) and a global leader in supply-side curation, transparency, and sustainability. Through its 100% cloud-based tech stack, OpenX powers advertising across CTV, app, mobile web, and desktop, enabling publishers to deliver marketers with improved performance and dynamic future-proofed solutions. With a 17-year track record of programmatic innovation, OpenX is a direct and trusted partner of the world’s largest publishers, working with more than 130,000 premium publisher domains and over 100,000 advertisers. As the market leader in sustainability, OpenX was the first adtech company to be certified as CarbonNeutral™ and third-party verified for achieving its SBTi Net-Zero targets. Learn more at www.openx.com.