Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Transformation
    Operations
    Data
    Experience
    Performance
    Management
    Special Reports
    All Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech
    Mission
    Team
    Newsletter
    Search Engine Land
    Third Door Media

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Performance Marketing » MarTech Landscape: What are Creative Management Platforms (CMPs) and Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)?

MarTech Landscape: What are Creative Management Platforms (CMPs) and Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)?

Both employ computer-assisted techniques to address zillions of programmatic ad targets, but they do it differently.

Barry Levine on June 27, 2016 at 10:30 am
A screen from creative management platform Thunder.

A screen from creative management platform Thunder

In digital advertising, ecosystems for programmatic bidding, targeting and delivery should mean that the days of one-ad-fits-all are over.

But, according to an AppNexus/Thunder study, 97 percent of campaigns don’t have a unique creative for each targeted placement. Apparently, it’s not unusual for a campaign to consist of a relatively few ad creatives, repurposed for different sizes.

Which seems like a complete waste. After all, if you can tell that a digital ad will be seen by a business traveler in a New York City high-end hotel on a weekday night at dinner time in winter, why not deliver an ad for that user’s type and needs?

What they are

To generate all the needed ad versions, two main platforms have evolved. One is called Dynamic Creative Optimization, known to friends as DCO. The other: Creative Management Platforms, aka CMP. In this installment of Marketing Land’s MarTech Landscape Series, we explain what those terms mean and what they can do for marketers.

In DCO, a variety of ad components — such as main body backgrounds, main images, overlay text, and so on — are dynamically assembled when they are served, according to the particular needs of the impression. Vendors include Adacado, Admotion, Adobe, Celtra and Sizmek.

So, an impression targeted at males 18–34 who live on the West Coast of the US and follow soccer might receive an ad built for that segment, in real time.

Here’s a demo of dynamically assembled ads from ad tech firm Sizmek, which offers a DCO. On that screen, click on the links in the upper left.

While DCOs can assemble versions that are built on the fly, its sibling, CMP, offers a computer-aided tool so creative staff can prebuild lots of ads for specific segments.

So, an ad impression targeted at males 18–34 on the West Coast of the US who follow soccer can be filled by an ad — out of dozens or hundreds created for the campaign — that was previously built for that audience segment with a CMP. A CMP — like Flite, Spongcell or Thunder — gives superpowers to ad creators, so they can churn them out far faster than a normal mortal.

The platform might employ machine learning, automated picture cropping, automatic size and design generation and other computer-assists to help a person generate a large variety of completed ads.

Their benefits and downsides

In a loose way, it’s the difference between a made-to-order meal and a pre-made one. Although both platforms allow for performance feedback to create a Darwinian selection of the fittest, where only the best-performing ad offspring survive for later generations, the differences point to different goals, just as a restaurant meal and prepared food have different goals.

DCO advocates point out that such a platform scales very well, a key requirement as the number of targeting conditions multiplies. Which it will, because of a dramatic increase in addressable devices and in details about users’ behaviors and situations.

DCOs, for instance, are great for those retargeted ads featuring a pair of sneakers that follows you for days from site to site, trailing you like a lost puppy, because you recently happened to look at a retailer’s product page on sneakers.

For that kind of remarketing, it’s hard to imagine any other way to pull a product shot and specs from hundreds of products in that one retailer’s catalog, immediately generating an ad to remind you of what you virtually walked away from.

What a DCO ad lacks in creative flair is made up by its immediate relevance to your recent shopping interest.

But CMP advocates, such as Thunder CEO Victor Wong, point out that social networks like Facebook don’t allow the use of DCOs in their closed environments because that would mean the ad is being assembled by an outsider. Facebook would lose control over, say, when the entire page is rendered.

Getting together?

Wong said it’s clear that targeted creative variations have big benefits. Thunder conducted case studies that found a three-fold increase in click-through rate and an 85-percent lift in conversions for ads whose creative is informed by the targeted data, compared to a repurposed generic creative. No stats yet, though, about DCO-generated ads versus CMP-powered ones.

Marketers get more control in a CMP, he said, not only over the creative for each ad, but also over the exact conditions or audience segment when each ad version is displayed. A DCO otherwise makes that decision, at the moment. But DCOs can generate far more variations than even the most empowered user of a CMP.

When asked if the two approaches could ever combine, Wong noted that his company’s CMP already allows ads to be built programmatically, based on something as simple as a spreadsheet. A key difference: They are not built at the moment of delivery.

And don’t be surprised to see DCOs evolve into having more intelligence about what works creatively and more output options that could, say, include pre-built ads designed for specific segments.

 


New on MarTech

    Webinar: Overcome third-party data challenges for CX success

    Public wants to know where brands stand on issues, surveys show

    Why event technology is critical to marketing success

    HubSpot expands App Accelerator program internationally

    The power and limitations of universal IDs

About The Author

Barry Levine
Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.

Related Topics

Performance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

June 7, 2022: Master Classes

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Discovering Now: Spring

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Webinars

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

Dominate Your Competition with Google Auction Insights and Search Intelligence

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.