The digital medium is on the cusp of a large paradigm shift with warning shocks already rippling through the industry. A new lexicon is being written – always an indication of a new frontier– as early adopters seek to insulate their expertise: RTB, exchanges, yield managers, buy-side optimization, etc. etc.
The renaissance of digital media (DM)is upon us.
Until now DM has largely been shackled by publisher-centric paradigms that were established in the previous media epoch. Billions of dollars were, and still are, spent with publishers that could aggregate enough eyeballs of a specific make up. Everyone understood the system wasn’t perfect, but it was the only option available.
That was then – today is a new era.
With access to open data and inventory systems, DM can be effectively purchased within an Audience Based Framework.
What we have now is a three-way gold rush between agencies, networks, and data players. Collaboration will be accelerated during this early transitionary phase. However, at the end of the day, all parties are still looking to secure the largest slice of the media pie.
This is where I need to interject with a reality check:
Non-Premium spend only accounts for 20%-25% of display budgets today.
This number will grow over the next few years, but I don’t predict it ever reaching 100% due to the fact that scaling requires homogenization. Furthermore, I predict a creative explosion as creatives and planners become more familiar with the technical capabilities available to them that cannot exist within the non-premium space.
The digital medium must effectively accommodate the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the creative psyche. In order to accomplish this propitious balance the current personnel structure for media planning must be revised.
Introducing The Performance Strategist:
The proposed structure is similar to the dual-specialist creative teams: copy writer & art director.
The Media Strategist …. right brain – will be tasked with premium buys and the more creative media executions such as takeovers, rich media, sponsorships, integrations, etc. In addition, due to the complexity of formats and opportunities it will be essential for this position to closely interface with the digital creative team. They will be the educators and guides for the creatives similar to the role Planners play today on the consumer insights front.
On the other hand, Performance Strategists …. left brain – will take over all responsibilities for non-premium and secondary premium inventory. The complexity of the non-premium/data space is approaching that of processor architecture, and specialists will be needed to effectively navigate these murky waters.
Their jobs will be to optimize this equation: A + B -> C
A = Targeting/Data
B = Creative
C = Web Experience/Landing Page
Creative on the performance side of the fence should be mutually exclusive from the non-performance creative and needs to be 100% dynamic, primarily based on versioned templates for fast and cost effective build out. These dynamic shells can also provide opportunities for rich, interactive experiences such as product catalogs and video as long as the initial load sizes are within those tolerated by exchange based platforms. Data abundance and targeting savvy have reached a point where they are severely limited by creative. Simply put, there is no reason to micro-target if you are speaking to everyone with the same message.
To have a comprehensive approach to performance optimization Performance Strategists must also incorporate versioned or dynamic web experiences based on the users data profile and the creative they interacted with. For example, if a mother clicked on travel creative to Bermuda the landing page should offer family options at Bermuda hotels.
Finally, the aggregate data from the equation (A + B -> C) will provide a rich source of insights that the Performance Strategist must package and communicate to the client.
Organizational Overview:
Now that we have defined the need for the Performance Strategist role, we must define the revised organizational structure. To the left is a simplified model for current digital planning groups which are personnel heavy and expensive. This is due to the fact that traditional strategists must deal with much more fragmented Premium inventory and client relations. On the right side is the Performance Strategist, who can single-handedly maintain a large number of accounts as they interface with a unified inventory system, and after the initial dataset defining phase they merely have to make small tweaks to the optimization equation to maximize results. Thus, the personnel cost of a single Performance Strategist can be amortized over a number of accounts. Finally, the Performance Strategist should be aided by an optimization algorithm that can process large datasets and make adjustments in real-time.
From a scaling standpoint, Performance Strategists should be initially rolled out based on geographic media hubs; however, as client adoption increases they should be reorganized into specialization by industry vertical. Specialization will allow for more effective client management as optimizations will be more similar across clients in a single vertical. At the global level teams can broken up between the US, Asia, and Europe with vertical specialists in each region.
Love to hear feedback from the community, as the purpose of this post is to catalyze conversation surrounding the changing roles of digital media planners.
We must solve the two big problems:
1. Digital Creative Needs a Revolution – hat tip to Hernan Lopez, his article here
2. Current planners are not trained to handle the technology/data heavy campaign management of pure performance marketing
