Rethinking media planning: Summit of the digital advertising industry at ProgrammatiCon 2024
At the sold-out Weitsicht Cobenzl overlooking Vienna, the digital advertising industry met on September 12 as part of ProgrammatiCon’s conference day. The event for data-driven advertising was hosted for the ninth time by the digital agency e-dialog.
Photo credit: Yvonne Fetz, Studio F.
More than 200 digital marketing experts attended the conference day, and another 60 took part in five online bootcamps in the days leading up to it.
Professionals from five countries presented and challenged the current state of the digital advertising industry in talks, deep dives and panels across two stages. Topics included data-driven media planning, new digital formats and creatives, as well as data strategy, data protection and performance measurement.
Both major platforms such as Google, Meta and TikTok and media and technology providers such as Goldbach Media, Virtual Minds, Teads, Commanders Act, Usercentrics and adnomaly were represented on ProgrammatiCon’s two stages. Drawing on insights from various studies, Andreas Rau, Head of Media Agencies DACH at Meta, called for a more nuanced approach to the topic of attention—especially attention measured as visible seconds of an ad: “More attention does not necessarily mean better performance,” Rau emphasised.
The customer perspective at ProgrammatiCon was represented by contributions from Geberit, Nespresso, CTS Eventim and L’Oréal. Franziska Eickhoff, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at L’Oréal DACH, together with Meinolf Meyer, Head of Data & Measurement Solutions at Google, described the overhaul of 37 brand sites as part of the transition to Google Analytics 4. “Google Tag Manager is like a wardrobe. It should be tidied up regularly,” Eickhoff joked.
In talks and contributions from Austria’s biggest YouTuber, Joanna Zhou (maqaroon), and the country’s most successful podcaster, Richard Hemmer (Geschichten aus der Geschichte), it was also emphasised how important it is for advertisers to understand what good content is. In the panel “Content that convinces”, Julius Winter, Executive Creative Consultant at TikTok, argued that advertisers should leverage the community’s viewing habits and adapt their advertising content to the platform being used. Oliver Rosenthal, Head of Creative Works at Google, called for more courage when brands collaborate with creators on platforms such as YouTube.
The programme was rounded off by talks and deep dives from experts from the host, e-dialog. Maria Holzinger, Head of Creative, and Iris Handlsberger, Director Media Consulting & Campaign Strategy, opened the conference with a broad overview titled “Five reasons why your campaign is running like sh*****” and urged advertisers to leave old ways of thinking behind. The topic was explored in greater depth in a deep dive on the path from gut feeling to data-driven media budgets by Buster Grunau and Alexandra Lanz. A live demonstration drew attention to the possibility of generating realistic AI models from just a few photos for product demonstrations in e-commerce, presented by Long Pham and Christian Reiser.
To round off the day, ProgrammatiCon guests were invited to a chill-out event with networking in the domed hall of Schloss Cobenzl.
