2013 passed in a blur, the way the industry was evolving and our own business here at VivaKi meant we saw a frenetic pace from start to finish.  It seems a world away that VivaKi restructured to be more out facing to the wider Groupe, the question marks on how we would survive and adapt answered by the end of 2013 and the future opportunity laying itself out ahead of us into 2014 is a positive one.

VivaKi now works with more agencies than ever in the Groupe and we have pulled together representatives from all media and creative agencies to work on our Ventures team, our focus as a product, data and services team in Publicis is really bearing fruit now with the incredible data warehousing solution of SkySkraper and the AOD platform now working with all the VivaKi Verified DSPs being accessible to all. The VivaKi data story has evolved at an incredible pace and having road tested on some of the world’s largest advertisers I know we are on to a good thing.

On a personal note the combination of new business, new markets, AOD growth generally and VivaKi representation at some of the major events from Istanbul to Google’s CAB in San Francisco meant that the days remained full to the brim. Just how I like it. The range of events this year has been more varied,  I somehow ended up missing the main programmatic season in September but it was great presenting at both Client Advisory Board events for Google, OMMA RTB event, more recently the Future of TV event and a really enjoyable session at Marketing Society in Ireland amongst others. The programmatic bug reached Istanbul at Webit where we talked RTB at their big event as well as a few London sessions and a turn at Festival of Media.  As well as industry events we held publisher days in Amsterdam, Milan, Istanbul, Madrid. The pace of change amongst publishers in RTB is significant across the region and these events are important to keep up good dialogue.

As the year progressed I think the most enjoyable trend was one of growth into more creative ways of using programmatic. Audience On Demand spend has leapt forward on the back of brand advertisers moving into the space and seeing the opportunity. Larger formats, the ability to combine data, viewability and fantastic inventory across all channels has opened up a massive opportunity for everyone. Brand advertisers can now see the benefits and are getting behind it, it is so great to see.

VivaKi and Audience On Demand launched three global Activation Centers in Amsterdam, Singapore and Dubai, creating a new way of providing first class product and service to our major advertisers. The Activation Center in Amsterdam now carries campaigns from 10 markets, that is from something we set up in May! The world is adjusting and I am proud of this particular development because we have not just done what we always do, we rewrote the rules and it’s working.

The press has been in overdrive with stories of clients doing everything themselves, taking it in house etc. It has been the busiest I have ever known it. I am sure those themes will continue on into 2014 and we will see some companies either try and do something themselves or use there parties like DSPs to support. People will experiment, as far as I am concerned Audience On a Demand need to have an offering we believe in, we want to work closely with publisher partners and agency partners and then the rest will play out. The scope of what we are building gives me a lot of confidence that we can show advertisers all the reasons they need to work with us. Part of that is transparency and again I am sure there will be more on that. My understanding is that ISBA will be doing more in this space which is great. 

The incredible pace of IPOs and sales in 2013 has been mind boggling, lots of the big names have taken the plunge and so I imagine we will continue to see a lot of press and growth from them as they justify their business models, the 60+% margins now all on show in accounts helps to demonstrate how they are running versus our own offerings when talking with advertisers,
Especially those who continue to offer blind, flat cpc, cpm offerings. Finally I think more advertisers are understanding the market now so I hope to see some rules often applied to trading desks, at least AOD anyway, being applied to these companies. That can only be a good thing.

Apparently 2014 is going to be the year that advertisers only pay for Ads that are watched or seen. This is a great step forward, I hope this applies to newspapers and TV and outdoor? I assume it will be since that would be unfair advantage! Perhaps that explains the total imbalance of pounds spent on newspapers vs their share of consumption?  I am all for viewability, let’s just agree how and what because we have the answer to why. Many different providers, tech companies, more pivoting than the Royal Ballet makes life complicated for everyone, we need to see a concerted effort to try and create some standards.  Talking of standards the Digital Trading Standards Group sprang back to life at the latter end of 2013 which I hope is a good thing. I have been involved for many months and it all appeared to be getting a little out of hand, some common sense and reason has returned to make it something palatable for most so I expect to be seeing and hearing more in 2014.  In the same vain ISBA wants to work with some parties to evaluate the whole trading desk area. If they lead then we are happy with that, one thing that will be questioned strongly will be the involvement of an auditor and a main competitor to the trade desks as advisors, that’s not an ideal scenario and should really not involve anyone with skin in the game. That’s for 2014 I guess, it will go on the list of challenges!

All in all though 2013 was a fantastic year, the VivaKi, AOD teams have grown in size and strength and we are working with more advertisers than ever and seen 100%+ growth. I am personally excited to be working closely with markets like Turkey and Eastern European markets that are on a steep trajectory. The leaders of VivaKi across EMEA are shaping the market and doing a fantastic job which gives us great strength and depth. 

We enter 2014 with an early flight to CES, the largest most diverse and tech driven conference of the year. VivaKi as ever will be leading their VivaKi Bright Lights agenda, and all of our partners will descend for a 24/7 packed few days.  As we move through the year I am sure the POG agenda will accelerate and I think that will be incredibly exciting and I am so pleased to be working through such a mammoth event, a landmark in advertising and media history. It will create opportunity, buzz and of course the world’s largest advertising and media business!  I am looking forward to VivaKi involvement throughout.

What else will the year hold for us all?

Less buzz more substance
Transparency debate affecting Independant RTB networks more strictly
Mobile growth on the back of equalisation of all the point solution offerings
RTB becoming all media not just performance with most brand opportunities such as homepage takeovers etcetera becoming the norm

It’s been another amazing year in digital. Thanks to all the VivaKi teams, thanks to all our partners, and basically all the great people we work with across the business. Our agency brands have been incredible as ever at ZenithOptimedia, SMG, LBi, Razorfish and we are really looking forward to 2014.