Starting a debate: Is programmatic buying killing creative strategy or finally giving it room to breathe?

I had this conversation with two different people last week after a campaign went live. One guy from the agency side said programmatic just turns everything into a math problem and nobody cares about the message anymore. The other guy, who runs a DSP, argued that creative actually matters more now because you can test stuff in real time. I keep going back and forth on this. Like three years ago I was at a shop in Chicago where we spent weeks on one TV spot. Now I see people churning out 50 different display ads in a day and half of them look like garbage. Does that hurt the craft or does it just force us to adapt? Curious where everyone lands on this.

3 comments

3 Comments

reeseperez12d ago

Is programmatic really "killing" creative or did we just get way too precious about one TV spot? Feels like people are acting like it's either masterpiece or trash when really most of it was always just okay.

the_mila12d ago

Wait wait wait... did you just say most of it was always just okay? That hits different because I still remember those big ad moments from back in the day. Like the Super Bowl spots people actually talked about at work the next morning. Not saying every single one was a masterpiece but there was something about sitting through a 30 second story that actually made you feel something. Now it's just data points and retargeting me for shoes I looked at once.

hayden_nelson8512d ago

Push back a little here. @the_mila you're right that some of the big spots landed, but most people couldn't name the last three Super Bowl ads they watched straight through without skipping. Programmatic forces creative to prove itself in seconds instead of relying on the prestige of a slot nobody chose to watch.