Incubeta is a leading UK-based media agency, working across 20 offices globally to unlock business growth for clients including Google, Hyundai, Netflix, HBO and L'Oréal. Their programmatic & ad ops team uses Adloox’s features to optimize their multi-levers campaigns, at scale. We interviewed Alice Malthouse, Programmatic Delivery Team Lead, about her role, the agency's strategy and how she uses Adloox.

1. Can you tell us more about your past experiences and your current role?

I joined Incubeta 8 years ago as a graduate and have worked my way up to a Head of Display position. While I used to be very much "in the platform" and running the campaigns, nowadays I ensure the accounts are running smoothly, make sure our clients and team are happy and focus on how we can grow the team and our display proposition.

2. Incubeta is a leading digital marketing agency, can you tell us more about the company's current strategy, especially regarding programmatic advertising?

We work with a wide client base across a vast range of verticals, to help clients with their programmatic campaigns across the marketing funnel. A lot of our clients come to us with quite a performance-focused mindset, so we work with them to figure out the best way to get real, measurable results from the platforms and partners that we use. However, we believe that clients get the most out of programmatic campaigns when they form part of a full-funnel, cross-channel strategy, so our focus is on supporting our clients in developing confidence in the effectiveness of these campaigns through helping them develop their approach to measurement and rigorous testing.

With all our campaigns, we work closely together with other media channels to share insights and learnings and deliver a joined up strategy. We also work hand in hand with our in-house creative team on briefs, because we know that our media strategy will only be effective with the right messaging and presentation, so we put together a strategy focused on giving consumers the best experience possible from the brands that we work with.

3. What are the biggest topics that will shape programmatic advertising in the following months, according to you?

Things can move quickly in programmatic, although a lot of the big topics at the moment are focused on slightly longer term evolution (privacy, for example). Saying that, after a rocky start with their advertising proposition, Netflix has started cracking down on the sharing of accounts, so we may see a rise in brands wanting to appear on Netflix to ensure they’re at the forefront of new inventory and to maximize on the influx of new users on this platform.

Looking longer term, within the industry, we’re seeing increasing interest in Connected TV and Digital Out Of Home and the benefits of this being run by the same team who are running the rest of the brand's digital activity, and with it a reevaluation of the role of digital in marketing. I’m sure this will cause many internal questions such as where the budget will come from, how learnings can be shared internally and how we can bring traditionally online and offline channels closer together.

4. Customers are more and more careful in terms of investments, what strategic patterns are you currently observing?

Due to the economic climate, customers are being more mindful of where they’re spending their money and may be more selective with their purchases. As a result, brands are having to be mindful of where their budget will be invested in response to this pull back in consumer spending. As a result, we’re understandably seeing clients be more focused on the bottom line, which can also cause pressure on marketing teams. In response to this, many clients are focusing on lower funnel initiatives and KPIs which are more readily measurable.

5. You use Adloox on a daily basis, can you tell us more about your experience with us?

We’ve been working with Adloox for years as our brand safety partner across our campaigns. The dashboard gives us all the insight we could ask for and the team is super responsive to our requests. We have quarterly meetings with Adloox to discuss previous performance, how we can improve accounts and any initiatives that can be applied to our campaigns.

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