Real-time bidding should be seen as a way to free up the creativity of a sales team and enhance a publishers’ premium ad offering, rather than be a threat to it, says Guardian News & Media head of optimisation and effectiveness Tim Gentry.
He told an audience at this morning’s nma Live that Guardian.co.uk had invested in real-time bidding and was working with multiple partners to help it “make sense of the jigsaw” that is its users and range of platforms, stemming from having an open-source commercial model.
“The shift for us has come from being clever and creative in testing and using technology,” Gentry said. “The really exciting premium stuff can only happen when someone has a conversation and gets editorial sign-off. That’s what will make you money. The other [direct response] stuff is just what you do.”
Gentry was joined on a panel by Sky head of online sales and marketing Matthew Turner, Vivaki Nerve Centre UK MD Marco Bertozzi, and Rubicon Project international senior VP Jay Stevens.
Stevens said real-time bidding, when properly understood and implemented, could be used to execute campaigns across “the entire customer lifecycle”.
“It can be used for things like retention, cross-selling, upselling and reactivation, driving users through
