Dive Brief:
- Multi-channel marketing is the buzz-worthy concept in marketing circles today, but the CEO of multi-channel programmatic advertising platform Adelphic thinks the future lies in focusing more on the audience and less on channels.
- The audience-specific concept is about being able to reach the target audience regardless of the channel they are currently actively using.
- Around 10% of ad agency campaigns on Adelphic’s platform are based around buying an audience instead of channels.
Dive Insight:
Michael Collins, CEO of Adelphic, doesn't think the future of marketing will be based on a multi-channel approach. Multiple channels will surely be involved, but the overall approach, according to Collins, will be based around audiences and not channels. “There is absolutely a shift from a channel-focused approach to an audience-focused approach," Collins told VentureBeat. "And it’s taking place right now.”
At its core, this means marketers will seek to reach a specific audience via whatever channel they might be using, rather than targeting different marketing channels hoping to reach that audience. The idea is a marked change from traditional marketing strategy.
Collins added that many Adelphic clients have separate mobile and desktop strategies and even marketing teams. Currently, 10% of ad agency campaigns run on Adelphic’s platform are oriented to reaching an audience rather than focused on specific channels, a figure that doubled from last year. One issue marketers may find with this approach is a certain amount of “creepiness factor” if the audience feels marketing messages are stalking across multiple devices, such as from a smartphone to an ad delivered later on the desktop.