Dive Brief:
- The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) report, “The Outlook for Data: 2016 Snapshot,” found that 52.5% of its members expect the key focus for programmatic media buying this year to be video and mobile formats, compared to 43.4% citing display. The display figure is down from 50.5% last year.
- Almost 70% said cross-device audience recognition is the priority that will likely occupy most of their attention in 2016.
- The factors that will be most important in terms of influencing data-driven marketing and media initiatives include demand from customers at 60%, measurability at 48% and availability of first-party data at 47%.
Dive Insight:
The report is the first output of the new Data Center of Excellence, and is the IAB’s first data report of its kind.
“This ‘2016 Snapshot’ presents a clear picture of where data-driven advertising is headed,” Patrick Dolan, Executive Vice President and COO of the IAB, said in a statement. “While there are still technological challenges and a need for further workforce education, data-driven advertising is clearly front-of-mind for the industry. At IAB, between the establishment of our Data Center of Excellence and the recent launch of our Digital Data Solutions Certification program, we are addressing these issues head on.”
Along with finding out what marketers expect from data-driven marketing this year it also uncovered obstacles to success including insufficient availability of supporting technology cited by 45% of respondents and lack of internal experience at the functional or operational level cited by 35%.
In December, Chris Choi, director of media for Blue State Digital, told Marketing Dive, "The next wave in programmatic will be about the quality of the data and whether data can help advertisers solve complex and unique challenges to measuring success, like connecting online advertising with offline action."
The report was commissioned by the IAB, and conducted by the Winterberry Group via an online survey of 120 IAB member companies including 48 marketers and/or publishers and 65 marketing services (including agency services) and technology providers.