Curation… Just a pmp with a new nickname and backpack

Curation is just a PMP with a new backpack and nickname. I am betting that it will end up with the same issues in a few years as PMPs did. Let me explain.

When PMPs were first introduced, they were actually referred to as a “Premium Market Place”. The promises were of only premium publishers/inventory (by invite only) that were the subject of private auctions (buyers were also primarily by invite).

The pitches were also comprised of promises of “vetted publishers/inventory” paired with “top advertisers/agencies.” and on top of all of that, you could use just about any sort of targeting you wanted to including specific user targeting… (granted, targeting capabilities were a little more complex in their implementation back then, but still possible.)

Soon, the issues started to arise including with the targeting. With targeting, it became very apparent that the users were not showing up in the inventory provided in the PMP. Even just pure delivery was a struggle in a lot of cases. As we know, any tactic or offering from a programmatic network is about money at the end of the day, what were they to do…but add more inventory in hopes of finding the audiences to deliver the campaigns and get their returns?

From what I understand, curation will hopefully deal with some of these issues, but remember some issues can’t be dealt with as easily… You may have a larger audience, but what happens when that audience or strategy is “overused” for a specific brand/advertiser/agency? We know that any targeting in any combination depletes reach and scale, so how do you keep it going? Then how do you handle scenarios where 1 agency is competing with itself via different advertisers using the same strategies?

Anyways, just some thoughts for your weekend, which I hope you have a good one. And remember, if you are looking for ads help or an ads advisor, feel free to reach out.