Survey of Creatives Finds a Major Gap in How Advertisers and Brands Use Data

Programmatic advertising is a term thrown around a lot in the world of digital advertising, but a survey of creatives suggests many agencies still don’t understand exactly what programmatic is.

According to research released today by the ad-tech company Turn, a survey of more than 200 creatives in the U.K. found that only 59 percent of respondents from large agencies have worked on programmatic campaigns. However, a mere 11 percent of small agencies were even confident that they knew what “programmatic” meant.

Turn also found that when it comes to data exchanged between brands and their agencies, there’s a gap between what creatives want and what they get. A third (35 percent) of creatives surveyed reported not getting access to the data they need from brands, while another 29 percent said they’re not getting the data they need that media planning agencies have.

Richard Robinson, Turn’s managing director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said he decided to conduct the study after hearing a lot of anecdotes about the disconnect between brands, their data and their agencies.

“I kept on coming up against this issue where there was a feeling with brands that perhaps creatives didn’t understand the role of programmatic, the value of real-time data and how it could help or enhance the end-game of user experience,” he said in an interview.