CANNES, France โ For years, programmatic advertising has promised efficiency. It has also delivered a labyrinth of acronyms, middlemen, marketplaces and PowerPoint slides attempting to explain all of the above.
Googleโs Paul Gubbins says advertisers have finally had enough.
Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Gubbins, CTV sales lead for agency activation in EMEA exchange platforms at Google, described an industry increasingly focused on simplifying how ad dollars reach premium television inventory.
In other words, advertisers would like fewer treasure maps and more direct routes.
Agencies want fewer twists and turns
Gubbins said Google has long worked with brands, agencies and demand-side platforms to help advertisers reach audiences across screens and premium content. But in recent years, agencies have become increasingly concerned about navigating what he called a โvery complex and fragmented programmatic supply ecosystem.โ
That concern has fueled interest in supply path optimization, or SPO, the advertising industryโs ongoing quest to answer a deceptively simple question: Why take six connecting flights when a direct flight exists?
โWeโve had a lot of asks from the big holding cos and some of the independentsโ to help navigate the growing complexity of programmatic supply, Gubbins said.
Googleโs answer is a collection of buy-side tools, including Buyer Direct, updated curation capabilities and programmatic marketplaces.
The goal is to help agencies get closer to publishers while removing some of the layers that have accumulated in programmatic over the years like geological sediment.
Buyer Direct aims to shorten the journey
One area where Google sees significant momentum is connected TV.
Gubbins said agencies and DSPs increasingly prefer transacting CTV inventory through direct deals and programmatic guaranteed arrangements rather than…