Programmatic curation has been gaining momentum for the previous few years.
Now the backlash has begun.
Curation grew sufficient this 12 months that we wrote an AdExplainer on the pattern again in Might. However previously week, Advertising and marketing Brew, Adweek, Marketecture, advert tech Twitter and LinkedIn have weighed in, as criticisms of the pattern grew.
“Each time I hear curation, I believe advert community,” mentioned IAB Tech Lab CEO Tony Katsur on X, a pronouncement that prompted an enormous debate we focus on on this week’s episode.
Curation merchandise – usually constructed by DSPs, SSPs and DMPs – bundle stock collectively, usually by chopping out one layer of advert tech within the course of. Curation can also be being pitched as a means to purchase brand-safe information, high publishers or keep away from low-quality stock. And, as cookies go away, it permits consumers to make use of writer first-party knowledge as an alternative of third-party knowledge.
However some curation merchandise, which concentrate on high quality or security, are offering consumers with the type of advert expertise they thought they had been getting already. “Calling it curation is simply one other solution to say, ‘For years you’ve been flinging your adverts into the web with no concept the place they went,’” AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher says on this week’s podcast.
Some really feel the open net ought to focus not on curation however elevating the bar of stock general to make sure it thrives and is defended in opposition to walled gardens.
In the end, the pattern will solely take off if it will possibly enhance purchaser KPIs, a tricky proposition provided that lower-priced, lower-quality stock usually appears to be like nice on a spreadsheet – however unhealthy for the individual viewing the advert.
