The modern advertising experience can be best described in a litany of unbecoming words- invasive, impersonal, irritating, interfering, and what-not. A large part of this defamation can be owed to fragmented advertising experiences, leading to further broken consumer experiences.

A study by Gartner in 2018 pointed out that brands risk losing 38% of customers due to poor personalisation, and this trend has only kept on growing over the past 6 years, and especially since the pandemic. Companies are often willing to spend billions on ensuring that they reach their target audiences everywhere and at all times, but in the haste of ensuring omnipresence, they forget that omnipresence needs to be complemented with omniscience: Understanding the pulse of the right consumer at any given moment, across any given channel, and drawing insights from that to deliver a consistent experience. According to the CMO Council’s High Velocity Marketer Report 2022, a shockingly low 44% of marketers are only moderately confident in their ability to measure and attribute ad impressions and effectiveness.

In a gist, the fundamental element that has been missing from within this ecosystem: the “human,” “person” and “consumer.” They are clearly not at the center of an omnichannel programmatic ecosystem that has become increasingly channel-centric.

There are a few simple questions we need to ask ourselves when investing in or managing this technology landscape:

How many times have you started planning your campaign by putting the consumer at the center vs. the technology or the channel?

Have you allowed an explosion of “channels,” such as mobile, CTV, DOOH, Web, Mobile Web, to drive your programmatic strategy independently, resulting in your strategies, budgets, and creatives being stretched thin across channels without relevant data and insights to hold them together?

More often than not, the answer to the above for most programmatic stakeholders, us included, is yes. To put it plainly, an unhealthy penchant for focus on channels has resulted in prominent gaps in the programmatic ecosystem:

• Fragmentation: Marketers and publishers often operate within a fragmented environment, with numerous channels and platforms vying for attention. This leads to siloed strategies that fail to deliver a cohesive customer experience.

• Channel Obsession: There is an overemphasis on individual channels, such as mobile, social, email, or search. This “channel obsession” often results in disjointed campaigns that do not consider the holistic customer journey.

• Opaque Transactions: The complexity and opacity of programmatic transactions can lead to inefficiencies and distrust among stakeholders. Transparency remains a critical issue.

• Ineffective Measurement: Measuring the impact and ROI of advertising efforts is often done through narrow metrics that do not account for overall consumer engagement and business growth.

What is it exactly, then that needs to be corrected?

Making to shift from Channel to Consumer:
Marketers and publishers tend to fall into similar traps, more often than not:

Siloed Data: By not integrating data across channels, they miss out on valuable insights that could inform more effective campaigns. The result is, your programmatic lead sits on a wealth of data from a multitude of campaigns across a myriad of channels, but not an ounce worth of it can be translated into insights that give you an idea of consumer behaviour or trends across channels.

Inconsistent Messaging: Focusing on individual channels leads to inconsistent messaging, which can confuse and alienate consumers. While this challenge has been at the forefront of all problem statements presented by programmatic partners, little has been done in this field to influence dynamic messaging to ensure a branding/performance continuum across the advertising lifecycle

Neglecting the Consumer: In the rush to optimize for channels, the consumer’s needs and behaviors are often overlooked. A sole focus on messaging doesn’t work. There are myriads of variables at play in order to determine the optimal time and optimal creative to target a customer on a particular channel. A better understanding of this can happen only when you are closer to the customer than to the channel.

To rectify these issues, a fundamental shift in approach is needed. This involves moving from a channel-centric to a human-centric strategy. Here’s how this change can be undertaken:

Integrated Data Management: Marketers need to break down data silos and create a unified view of the consumer. This allows for more accurate targeting and personalization. A key step towards this is moving away from a reliance on multiple tools that aren’t well integrated with each other, and using a more unified, well-integrated setup

Consistent Messaging: Ensure that the brand message is uniform across all platforms, providing a seamless experience for the consumer. Marketers need to tie consumer behaviour closely with data to gain a deeper insight into the context in which an ad is served to them.

Focus on the Consumer Journey: Shift the focus from individual channels to the entire customer journey. Again, this translates to a deeper reliance on insights drawn from campaigns, and putting said insights as inputs to your campaigns to continuously optimise the path consumers take from awareness to conversion.

In essence, this means that Human-Centric Programmatic Advertising needs to encompass the following principles:

Personalization: Use data to tailor messages and offers to individual consumer preferences and behaviors.Data is the bedrock on which successful omnichannel campaigns are built, and helps connect the user to the campaign in a more relevant manner

Transparency: Ensure that programmatic transactions are transparent, fostering trust among all stakeholders. A transparent programmatic ecosystem ensures a greater probability of better ads being served to the right consumer, and

Measurement: Develop metrics that accurately reflect consumer engagement and business outcomes, rather than just channel-specific KPIs. Work towards measurement of your campaign across the funnel to get an all-round view of performance metrices
Intelligence and Customer-Centricity: A Natural Fit:

Human-Centric Advertising and AI in programmatic advertising seem to be a Romeo-Juliet pairing with a happy ending, combining the personalization of human-centric strategies with the power of artificial intelligence. AI enhances customer-centric approaches by analyzing vast amounts of data to understand consumer behaviors and preferences on an individual level. This enables the creation of highly tailored ad experiences that resonate with each user, leading to increased engagement and conversion rates. Potential use cases include:

• Predictive Personalization: AI algorithms can forecast future consumer behavior based on past interactions, allowing for proactive adjustments to ad content and delivery.

• Dynamic Creative Optimization: AI can dynamically adjust ad creatives in real-time to match user preferences and contextual signals, ensuring that each impression is relevant.
  
  Enhanced Fraud Detection: By leveraging machine learning models, AI can detect and mitigate fraudulent activities more effectively, protecting the integrity of ad campaigns.

Integrating AI into human-centric programmatic strategies ensures that ads are not only targeted and relevant but also delivered with precision, enhancing overall campaign effectiveness and consumer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Human-Centric Advertising represents a paradigm shift in digital marketing, emphasizing the importance of the individual consumer. By addressing current ecosystem challenges and adopting a holistic approach, marketers and publishers can create more meaningful, effective campaigns. Embracing principles such as integrated data management, consistent messaging, and a focus on the consumer journey will ensure that advertising efforts are not only impactful but also resonate with the modern consumer. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, Human-Centric Advertising will be key to driving engagement, trust, and business growth. At Nexverse, we aim to achieve this optimum level of human-centricity in our programmatic transactions, ensuring that the right ads reach the right audience in the right way and the right context, thus driving programmatic success for both advertisers and publishers.

Find out how we are revolutionizing the programmatic space with our humancentric omnichannel approach today by getting in touch with us!