Publicis’ very public split with The Trade Desk (TTD) may have turned an industry tension into a headline, but the underlying logic is hardly new. Walled gardens have popped up everywhere, so it makes sense for many media agencies to buy direct, and in fact, it's now a trend where trading desks are created internally for the specific purposes of buying into direct buy walled gardens.
It is no surprise, either, that with Epsilon’s data capabilities, Publicis would want to buy directly. They can create a range of audience exclusions and zoom in on very specific target audiences across CTV, audio and even the tail-end of programmatic. When an agency has that kind of data and scale at its disposal, the need to rely on a programmatic generalist starts to look less obvious.
We have used The Trade Desk before, and I can vouch for the fact that transparency can still leave much to be desired. Rails can be leaky. Auto-bids can back- or front-load unexpectedly. Generally, support has at times been few and far between. That may not be a unique problem to one platform, but it does help explain why a holding company with its own scale, tools and data assets may feel less and less dependent on a DSP partner that sits in the middle.
With the rise of programmatic specialist platforms across digital out-of-home, CTV, TV, sports and entertainment digital properties, it is no wonder that Publicis may not find the same need to work with a programmatic generalist. The ecosystem is simply more fragmented now, and the routes to market are more varied. Agencies are no longer dealing with a world in which one independent platform can claim quite the same universal relevance.
If I am to be honest, I think Publicis decided to make this a public spectacle because there has always been a misaligned requirement between what auditors want to see as true transparency and the commercial models of advertising agencies and adtech platforms. TTD, like many platforms, may not be able to provide the level of media audit detail that most brands now require, and this is a neat way to publicly address a potential audit-fail issue that is very common in the first quarter, when scrutiny around contracts, rebates, fees and reporting tends to intensify.
Commercially speaking, buying directly with walled gardens also helps agencies avoid tech fees that can start to look unnecessary when most major media agencies already have significantly sized trading desks. It is hard to justify tech fees in the teens when there is no meaningful added value for a trading desk that is supposed to come with planning and strategy across multiple omnichannel approaches and solve a client’s actual business need.
Which is what I think remains the value of principal media buying agencies in today’s AI-enabled, auto-bid, high-frequency ad exchanges. The value is not in adding another layer of cost into the chain just because that is how digital buying has evolved. The value is in planning, strategy and commercial accountability and in knowing when a tool is actually helping solve a business problem, and when it is just another tax on the way to inventory.
Humphrey Ho is the CEO of Helios & Partners.
Source: Campaign Asia-Pacific
