Setting the Record Straight on Curation
Curation is dominating conversations in the advertising world right now, and while it is not an entirely new concept, it still comes with misperceptions and confusion. Our industry’s desire to succinctly define curation, assign responsibility for it, and spell out guidelines and best practices is understandable—yet also challenging.
But curation is more than a buzzword or fad. It’s an important evolution in programmatic trading that, when managed correctly, benefits the entire ecosystem. Let’s set the record straight on a few of the generalizations (or outright falsehoods) that are circulating the industry regarding curation.
“We’ve been here before.”
It’s human nature to look for patterns. When presented with a new concept, we compare it to similar concepts we’ve encountered in the past and draw conclusions. We do that as people, and we do that as an industry.
One of the parallels currently being drawn for curation is ad networks. The pattern fits to the extent that curation relates to the thoughtful assembly of inventory. However, there are more differences between the rise of ad networks and the rise of curation than there are similarities—particularly in the areas that matter, like transparency and margins.
Dismissing curation as “just ad networks” negates the fact that our industry has logged 30 years of experience, learnings, and technology development since the dawn of the first ad networks. Digital media buying, and its players, have come a long way—and modern curation techniques reflect that progress.
When publishers think about the rise of ad networks, they think about the loss of control over their inventory that originally accompanied their adoption. For digital publishers, ad networks represented a race to the bottom—a dramatic decline on margins, a loss of visibility, and ultimately a major hit to profitability. They hear curation being compared to ad networks, and they get worried about yet another squeeze to their bottom lines. But that’s not what’s happening here. The modern curation space is being built with publishers in mind—to, in fact, put them back on the pedestal they deserve.
“Curation is just packaging inventory and data.”
A lot of working definitions of curation position it as a packaging of inventory and data to improve campaign targeting for advertisers. That’s not wrong, but it’s an oversimplification—and only half the story.
The creation of a curated package is just phase one of the modern curation process. The strongest, most complete approach looks like this:
Curation = Data + Media + Optimization
In other words, true success with curation demands not just the combination of data and media, but also a thoughtful approach to in-flight optimization as well—one that continues to curate the inventory for improved efficiency, reach, performance, or whatever other goal the advertiser is setting out to achieve.
“Curation is bad for publishers.”
Finally, let’s address an outright falsehood: Curation is not bad for publishers. It’s not a return to or an increase in the dreaded “ad tech tax.” In fact, a thoughtful approach to curation can be a boon to publishers by multiple measures.
Curation doesn’t detract from or reduce publishers’ premium direct-sold inventory. Full stop. That value is preserved. Curation can, however, help publishers increase their take rates and profitability on inventory that would otherwise go unsold.
One of the reasons we’re hearing so much about curation right now is that packaging processes that historically happened on the buy side, within DSPs’ data marketplaces, are now shifting to the sell side. This is notable because it increases visibility into the total supply available at any given time. It allows buyers to place their orders at the source of the inventory, where they can see everything that’s available—not just the limited view of what’s being passed through to the DSP. This, by design, increases the visibility of a publisher’s inventory, while enabling greater control and transparency for all parties. Supply-side audience targeting represents a strong first step in tapping into this improved visibility. Curation takes it a step further.
Under the modern curation movement, the lessons of the past 30 years become more relevant than ever for publishers: Relationships with brands and agencies must continue to be prioritized to ensure strong direct premium sales continue. Likewise, publishers must be mindful in selecting supply-side partners that have the toolsets needed to ensure thoughtful curation of inventory in a way that protects its value.
Curation does not exist in a silo. It’s a complement to premium direct sales that can manifest in many ways for publishers and advertisers. To achieve the greatest benefits on both sides, our industry needs to stop painting with broad strokes and instead embrace the full spectrum of unique and custom opportunities unlocked with the right curation partners and toolsets.
