New York, NY—(April 29, 2015) — Digital Content Next (DCN) today released insights into the future of programmatic advertising based on in-depth interviews with executives at 10 digital content companies from DCN’s membership including Vox, The Weather Company, Business Insider and CBS Interactive. “Practical Tips for a Programmatic Future” offers a behind-the-scenes peek at these organizations and details how they have prepared for a future with an expected continued rise in programmatic spend. DCN’s key takeaway—that programmatic is not a channel but a broad set of automation and efficiency tactics that can be employed across a range of inventory—is one of the valuable insights from the white paper.

“At DCN we’re focused on engaging our membership and the industry as a whole on large-scale issues because an open dialogue and shared learning help to pave the future for trusted content companies and the brands that advertise on them,” said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next. “Our discussions with members show that the rise of programmatic has a lot of positives in terms of efficiency and will not bring down overall advertising pricing, certainly points for others to consider when looking ahead.”

Additional DCN insights from the white paper:

Vendor partnerships are important

• Integration with constantly-evolving players in the ad tech stack is what makes building ad technology in-house prohibitive; all interview participants said they are not pursuing internal solutions and will instead rely on vendors.

Learn and grow with the buy side

• Most executives interviewed stressed the need to proactively talk to clients about their programmatic capabilities, as they are often unaware of them or how they can benefit their marketing campaigns.

Enable and incentivize your sales team to embrace programmatic

• Automation will not diminish the importance of sales relationships. Half of those interviewed said they are starting to see large buys that include some programmatic component; therefore, it is important to educate and enable account executives to have conversations about programmatic with clients.

Designate programmatic expert(s) on your team

• Digital content companies interviewed have created new roles for programmatic specialists. Broadly there are two types of functions that programmatic specialists will have to perform: (1) supporting the direct sales team; and (2) managing vendor and platform relationships.

Leverage first-party data and other organizational resources

• Programmatic specialists will need to work closely with engineering, analytics and data science teams to build out data capabilities and products.

“Practical Tips for a Programmatic Future” participants included:

• Jana Meron, Vice President of Programmatic and Data Strategy, Business Insider
• Dave Morris, Chief Revenue Officer, CBS Interactive
• Mike Smith, Vice President, Revenue Platforms and Operations, Hearst Digital Media
• Gina Reduto, Vice President, NBCUx
• Michael Stoeckler, Vice President, Ad Revenue Operations, The New York Times
• Bill Murray, Vice President, Sales Planning and Strategy, Scripps Networks Interactive
• John Kelly, Executive Vice President, New & Digital Sales, Univision
• Ryan Pauley, Executive Director, Revenue Operations, Vox Media
• Steve Stup, Vice President, Advertising Products & Strategy, Washington Post
• Jeremy Hlavacek, Vice President, Programmatic, The Weather Company

Download the “Practical Tips for a Programmatic Future” white paper here.

DCN has experienced approximately 15 percent growth in new members in the past 12 months including Business Insider, The Daily Caller, NewsBeat Social, Newsday, Rodale, Telegraph Media Group, Vocativ, Vox Media and Warner Bros. The organization has also expanded its scope to share additional intelligence and industry findings through its InContext website, public events and research.

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ABOUT DIGITAL CONTENT NEXT

Founded in June 2001 as the Online Publishers Association (OPA), Digital Content Next is the only trade organization dedicated to serving the unique and diverse needs of high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and marketers. Comprised of some of the most trusted and well-respected media brands, DCN produces proprietary research for its members and the public, creates public and private forums to explore and advance key issues that impact digital content brands, offers an influential voice that speaks for digital content companies in the press, with advertisers and policy makers, and works to educate the public at large on the importance of quality content brands. More information about Digital Content Next is available at http://www.digitalcontentnext.com.

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Contact: Kaitlyn Kurosky
HIGH10 MEDIA
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