The dream of advertising has always been reaching the right person with the right message at the right time in the right place. So, how do you do that? Data mate.
Like the Matrix, data is everywhere. As Morpheus explained to Neo, “It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television…” Essentially, data is like water; “Without water, everything is nothing” Also like the Matrix, data is generally just strings of numbers, letters and usually commas, ultimately gibberish, however informing every aspect of the AdTech landscape.
Just like in the Matrix, give the average Adtech professional access to a raw data feed and they won’t be able to do much with it. Now like Morpheus, Neo and their crew, your ability to interpret and make use of that data is where the real magic is. And the money…
Whether you’re on the supply side, at a publisher, on the demand side, selling to media agencies, at a tech vendor, at an agency, at an SSP, a DSP or whatever something-P out there, you will need to use some form of data to do your job. Data will always be of interest, whether to justify campaigns, to create audiences, to understand audiences, to target audiences for campaigns, to provide insights and to measure. All enabling you to reach the right person with the right message at the right time in the right place.
Unlike ad impressions, where legally you can only serve one impression at a time, data can be transacted multiple times, by multiple partners in multiple areas without resulting in cannibalisation. If programmatic advertising is seen as incestuous, data is polyamorous!
Just like most of the industry, I have always been involved in data, but more delivering the outcomes or building the ecosystems as opposed to directly selling data, this changed for me in 2017. From ecommerce data, publisher data, mobile device level data, in-app data, location data, customer data to online behavioural data and now fully in data monetisation and partnerships at OnAudience.
In the past 10 years alone, we have had GDPR, CCPA, the growth of CDPs, Clean rooms, the Cambridge Analytica Scandal and the looming threat of Cookie Deprecation. These have all had a massive impact on data collection, data use, data monetisation and identifying audiences, affecting all aspects of advertising. Understanding the data side of advertising gives you a distinct advantage with every evolution and crisis. And what is coming next? Retail Data, everything driven by AI and finally fixing measurement? Either way, all are heavily reliant on data.
Every decent sized advertising related business now has data focused roles and even data focused divisions. Depending on what you currently do or are interested in, there is a role for you!
I used to tell my teams that this industry is always evolving and so it is very unlikely you will find yourself out of a job for too long as there will always be a new technology, a new startup or a new product being launched. They will all need marketers, sales people, account managers, integrations specialists, analysts and engineers.
If you’d like to chat more about the data side of the industry, reach out and find me on LinkedIn.
Adrian Williams, Head of Strategic Data Partnerships and Corporate Development at OnAudience