Matching an audience to the right platforms

While real-time bidding (RTB) and the programmatic conversation in the region are certainly growing, the general adoption rate is still a lot lower than that of Europe and the US.

VivaKi predicts that 5 per cent of digital ad spend in the region will be bought in the programmatic/RTB space, but we expects that to shift to 15 per cent within the next three years. This compared to the US — where RTB and programmatic spend represents about 33 per cent of digital ad sales — is definitely an improvement and a move in the right direction.

However, there is still a lot of education that needs to happen when it comes to this space, as it is a new way of buying in the region. The key to this is client and publisher education.

Client education is done in partnership with the agencies to make sure that VivaKi’s programmatic tool — Audience On Demand (AOD) — works for the client and is relevant to their business needs. This makes educating the client much more fluid — coupled with the efficiencies gained, it helps to maintain their interest in this space.

Publisher education has also been extremely important through this process. Equipping publishers with the knowledge and technical know-how to trade in this space has also been crucial.

We are assisting in creating a programmatic marketplace by connecting with local/regional publishers and guiding them to list their inventory on Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) and/or Ad-Exchanges which in turn, grows the region’s inventory pool in this space.

Still, there are some brands might have reservation to use AOD, so as to minimise the risk of damaging its image. However, VivaKi Verified ensures that clients appear on brand-safe sites. Clients have the opportunity to select sites that they do want to appear on, or to create blacklists and we are completely transparent on where our ads are being delivered.

Since the launch of AOD in MENA in 2012, we have also introduced a video programmatic solution. The challenge was the lack of premium video inventory (including YouTube MENA inventory) in this space, which meant that we were unable to go to market with the full suite of AOD products. As a result we partnered with Adap. TV, a demand-side platform (DSP) to align with premium regional and relevant international publishers to have them list their inventory on the platform. This created private market place deals that allows us exclusive access to bid on this inventory.

The writer is Director — Audience On Demand (AOD), VivaKi MENA.