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PICKING THE RIGHT DMP

WHAT
MARKETERS
WANT
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WHAT MARKETERS WANT

Data Strategies That Pass the Real-World Test

Since its digital beginnings, the data management platform (DMP) has been hailed as the cure-all for the modern mar-
keter’s data woes.

For marketers deluged with numbers and information, the DMP promised to perform three critical tasks: onboard first-par-
ty and third-party data, construct audience segments, and inform smarter marketing actions based on those segments and
data. The DMP would act as a single collection point for data—a consumer’s interactions with a brand through different
channels, on different devices, in different locations. Once collected and loaded into the DMP, this customer data would
be merged with the vendor’s channel and household-level customer information to enable market segmentation, audience
development and media planning. And, ideally, this would all happen on a single dashboard.

Many marketers bought into that vision. In an exclusive survey conducted jointly with Neustar on the evolution of the DMP,
Ad Age interviewed 290 respondents—56.6% agencies and 43.4% marketers, with 86.6% of respondents working in the
U.S. Among marketers surveyed, about half, or 22.1% of total respondents, are product or service marketers; 7.2% are
in finance, insurance, legal or real estate; 3.4% are in retail; and the rest are divided between entertainment, travel, food,
telecommunications and other industries.

Overall, 50.4% of respondents said they have invested in a DMP—of the remaining half, virtually all expect to make a
similar investment within the next two years (Figure 1).

But our survey also uncovered profound disappointment in how well DMPs are meeting marketer needs and expectations.

HALF OF ALL MARKETERS ALREADY HAVE A DMP Figure 1

78.3% of marketers either already have or will have a DMP by the end of 2016.

21.7%

n Yes, we have a DMP.

50.4% n Yes, we plan to implement a DMP in the next 12 months.

n Yes, we plan to implement a DMP in the next 13-24 months.

27.9%

Base: 290.

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Only 23.3% of respondents currently using a DMP said they strongly agree that they are using their DMP to its fullest
capacity. Moreover, only 30.2% said they are “very satisfied” with the results they are getting from their DMPs.

Those numbers indicate that the promise of DMPs currently remains more a vision than a reality. Furthermore, while survey
respondents say that it’s important for the DMP to be integrated into their current channels, as seen in Figure 2, their actu-
al satisfaction with that integration trails far behind in each channel. Likewise, as shown in Figure 3, their top goals when
implementing a DMP—driving higher ROI, driving audience analytics and optimizing integrated marketing programs, for
example—have not yet been satisfied by the DMP’s performance.

But an evolution among DMPs, combined with new approaches by marketers, offers hope that this vision can soon be-
come reality.

TODAY’S DMP INTEGRATIONS DON’T LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS Figure 2

How important is integrating a DMP with your current channels, and how satisfied are you with that integration?

n Importance n Satisfaction

74.5%
Website/mobile app 24.5%

Mobile 72.0%
21.7%

Search 69.6%
25.1%

CRM 68.7%
23.9%

Email 68.2%
28.3%
Earned social 61.7%
19.3%
Video 61.4%
22.4%
Display 60.0%
30.1%
Paid social 59.3%
23.5%
Point of sale 46.3%
20.4%
TV 43.5%
18.7%
SMS/MMS 41.0%
16.6%
Call center 36.9%
19.3%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Base: 290; based on 8-10 ratings on a scale where 1 is “not important at all” or “not at all satisfied” and 10 is “extremely important” or “extremely satisfied.”

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HOW DMPS MEET MARKETERS’ EXPECTATIONS Figure 3

What uses were you trying to enable by implementing a DMP and were they successful?

n Why they picked their DMP n Success with DMP

63.4%
Drive higher ROI
45.5%

55.2%
Drive audience analytics
49.0%

Optimize our integrated marketing programs 54.8%

46.2%

Create a targeting profile of audience 53.4%

50.3%

Obtain robust and actionable customer insights 53.4%

48.3%

More effectively centralize, organize and leverage 50.7%

first-party online and offline audience data for targeting 42.8%

Optimize CRM programs 49.7%

46.6%

Optimize existing communication channels 47.9%

48.6%

Develop 360-degree view of our audiences, 46.2%

including offline 35.5%

45.9%
Optimize creative and messaging
47.9%

Enable data-driven decisions to media buying 44.1%

48.6%

Optimize consumer experiences on my site/app 43.8%

36.2%

Evaluate effectiveness of emerging channnels 40.0%

40.7%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Base: 290.

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WHY MARKETERS ARE FRUSTRATED

Survey respondents reported investing in a DMP for a variety of reasons. Top among their criteria are reporting and an-
alytics; the user interface and ease of use; the ability to do market analysis and segmentation, and audience planning and
analysis; data ownership and security; and offline and online data collection.

However, marketers already using a DMP say they are frustrated by a variety of factors. Survey respondents cited as top
challenges:
• Technology limitations.
• Data quality issues.
• Vendor limitations.
• Data security issues.
In addition, Neustar executives say marketers have been frustrated by the long cycles required to deploy a DMP. Although a
DMP investment is predicated on a strong return on investment, marketers find that measuring the actual efficiencies can
be difficult with large, decentralized media buying structures.

For the marketers who use DMPs, these challenges have made it difficult to realize the ultimate vision and purpose of
the DMP: combining a raft of disparate data including CRM data, call-center or customer-service information, online and
offline purchases, warranty cards, etc., for audience management and planning and media optimization. As a result, their
level of satisfaction with their DMPs remains low (Figure 4).

MARKETERS’ DMP SATISFACTION Figure 4

How satisfied are you with your current DMP’s performance in the following areas?
35%
33.6%
30%
29.4%
25% 28.1%
26.7%

20% 23.2%
19.2%
15%

10%

5%

0%
Ability to measure Scale and effective- Ability to compre- Ability to syndicate Scale and effective- Ability to syndicate
audience performance ness of onboarding hensively measure custom audiences at ness of third-party custom audiences at
across devices first-party data audience performance scale across devices data audiences scale across channels,
audiences across channels, including offline
including offline

Base: 290; based on 8-10 ratings on a scale where 1 is “not at all satisfied” and 10 is “extremely satisfied.”

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Says Rob Gatto, senior VP-sales for Neustar, “Some companies are already in their third version of a DMP and are still
dissatisfied. The existence of data silos and the lack of time and expertise on the advertiser’s side are two big reasons why
DMPs fail. But perhaps the single biggest factor is that marketers don’t take the holistic view and are making decisions
inside the cone of digital.”

Industry executives say DMPs have fallen short of their promise because marketers have used DMPs tactically to increase
the ROI of a digital campaign, for instance, but have been unable to deploy DMPs more broadly. Overall, they say they
want a broader customer view than they are currently getting (Figure 5).

MARKETERS’ DMP WISH LIST Figure 5

A look at what marketers want their DMPs to provide

n I wish my current DMP would provide me with:

n I hope that my future DMP will provide me with:

80%

70%

67.4%
60% 61.7%
59.6% 58.4% 58.9%

50%
51.4%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
A complete view of my consumer so I Accurate cross-device linkages to A better single view of the consumer
can measure all my audience’s activities consistently and accurately identify across digital and offline experiences
in places like Facebook consumers

Base: 146 for those that have a DMP and 144 for those planning to have a DMP; based on 8-10 ratings on a scale where 1 is “strongly disagree” and 10 is “strongly agree.”

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WHO RUNS YOUR DMP? Figure 6

A look at the internal owners of companies’ DMPs

27.9% 25.2% 23.1% 18.6% 4.8% 9.0%

VP-Director VP-Director VP-Director IT VP-CRM Other (CEO, CIO, CMO,

of Marketing of Digital of Analytics CTO, Director of
Media, etc.)

Base: 290.

“I think the biggest issue driving that lack of satisfaction is that marketers don’t step back to see the impact access to the
data across the ecosystem could have on their business,” says Michael Schoen, VP-marketing services for Neustar. Instead,
he says, DMP decisions have been made in a digital vacuum, “not looking at where customers are living and breathing—
which most often is still offline.”

The lack of a cross-channel perspective can be attributed largely to continued organiza-

39.8%
tional issues. Although they recognize the marketing potential of breaking out of silos,
for many brands relevant data and decision-making remain separate from each other.

“Email, website, CRM—almost all of those numbers are still in silos,” Mr. Gatto says.
“It makes [cross-channel decision-making] very challenging.”
Available
internal
Those who wonder why DMPs are not being used with big-picture marketing strate-
gies in mind need only look at the disparate ways DMPs are managed. For instance,
resources
although 27.9% of respondents to the Ad Age-Neustar survey said the “internal own- is a top
er” of their DMP was the VP or director of marketing, 25.2% said the owner was the
head of digital; 23.1% said it was the head of analytics; and 18.6% named the head challenge in
of IT (Figure 6). implementing
Not surprisingly, more than a third of survey respondents cited “available internal a DMP
resources” and “organizational structure issues” among the top three challenges in —Ad Age-Neustar survey
implementing a DMP.

“There is a big gap in skill sets out there—in terms of what different brands do and how they approach data and market-
ing,” says Chris Taylor, senior VP-marketing for 1-800-Flowers.com. “Some companies have entire teams for ad technology
and digital analytics. It takes a lot of expertise to really exploit a lot of that stuff. It’s not easy.”

January 2016 7
—Ad Age-Neustar survey
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MAKING A DMP WORK FOR YOU

Whether reevaluating a current DMP or considering making a new investment, marketers have a large number of ex-
pectations (Figure 7). From that perspective, they are asking how to make a DMP work better and more efficiently for their
brands. Marketing, agency and ad tech experts offer this advice:

• Think big picture. Focus beyond digital from the beginning—including when you are selecting a DMP vendor.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT DMP Figure 7
What do you look for when selecting a data management platform?

Reporting and analytics 80.7%

User interface and ease of use 74.5%

Market analysis and segmentation 70.7%

Audience planning and analysis 69.4%

Data ownership and security 67.9%

Offline and online data collection 65.2%

Cross-channel, cross-device measurement 59.7%

Raw data access and portability 56.6%

Attribution modeling 55.4%

Third-party data integrations 54.5%

Cross-channel audience syndication 52.4%

Normalization and user profile management 51.4%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Base: 290; based on 8-10 ratings on a scale where 1 is “not important at all” and 10 is “extremely important.”

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SELECTING A DMP VENDOR Figure 8

Why do you choose some DMP vendors over others?

Cost 60.7%

Analysis of capabilities 58.3%

Experience (qualifications/case studies, etc.) 50.7%

Expertise (by sector/topic) 48.6%

Recommendations from trusted sources 47.6%

Past/current clients 25.9%

Ability to fulfill new projects 25.2%

Business model 24.5%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Base: 290.

Too many DMP decisions are being made without thinking beyond digital, partly because of the industry’s current emphasis
on programmatic buying. Maximizing the impact of a DMP requires thinking about customer journeys both offline and online.
Failure rates on digital-only DMPs are very high, because companies find that after 12 to 18 months the DMP isn’t providing
the anticipated value, Neustar executives say. Says Mr. Schoen: “If the actual selection process is only focused on digital me-
dia, no matter who you pick, you won’t be satisfied—because you will miss out on the bigger opportunity a DMP can offer.”

• Know the right questions to ask a prospective DMP partner or vendor.

Picking the right DMP vendor means knowing what you want from that partner (Figure 8). When choosing a partner or
vendor, you need to ask the following questions:

n How will the DMP allow you to connect your online information to your offline sales and data?
n What do you expect the technology to offer you?
n How does the vendor or system evaluate the effectiveness of marketing spending?
n How will your proposed data partner or DMP vendor work with the ecosystem of your other agencies and technology
partners?
n Is having no data integration barriers an important consideration for your DMP requirements?
n Is the solution a hybrid DMP/DSP that can only measure what it sells?

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Overall, be clear clear about what your business goals and technical objectives are, and what demands the technology
needs to support both now and into the future.

• Don’t rely exclusively on your agency or vendor to understand the technology for you—it’s your brand.
Says Mr. Schoen, “Marketing and analytics need to expect that they have a better understanding of their business—and
their brand data—than any vendor. They have to make that investment by building up a data science team or by buying
that capability with a sophisticated partner.” Agrees Mr. Gatto: “Too often, brands are way too reliant on their agencies to
deal with these important data issues.”

• Make sure the DMP investment has interdepartmental support.

For a successful DMP investment, “it’s critically important that it is not an initiative just owned by the digital folks,” Mr.
Schoen says. “You need to have internal discussions about all the sources of data that you have access to, that might be in
silos, and be open to thinking holistically about how the brand is engaging with consumers.”

Think about your retail data, all the touch points with consumers and the types of data

23.3%
you can collect. Retail is a $1.1 trillion industry; although most sales still happen offline,
consulting firm Deloitte predicts that digital interactions would influence 64 cents of every
dollar spent in stores by the end of 2015, or $2.2 trillion. Draw the lines to show how data
from one channel can be activated in another channel. And, Mr. Schoen says, “Have that
preliminary discussion before the DMP initiative.”
We are
using
• Before buying, find an internal expert who really understands what a proposed our DMP to
DMP does—and can do for your brand.
Technology is complicated. Don’t be satisfied with a DMP choice unless your team un- its fullest
derstands what it’s buying. You may need to open up the “black box” for transparency
and to really understand what the DMP does. Too many DMP disappointments have been capacity.
caused because the marketer misunderstands what the vendor can do—or more funda- —Ad Age-Neustar survey
mentally, the vendor misunderstands what the marketer wants. That’s a key reason why
only 23.3% of survey respondents say they’re using their DMP to its fullest capacity. For
the long run, encourage your company to create a higher-level data position with both technology expertise and the nec-
essary big-picture perspective.

More and more digital marketers need to think about their impact beyond the online realm into offline. Because of this,
you want a DMP that can handle both offline and online activities so you can create that single portrait of your customers
to help understand how they are interacting with your brand.

• Work toward an organizational position that helps handle data across departments and channels.
In many marketing organizations, responsibilities—including data collection, management and analysis—are divided
among traditional, digital and social media teams. But many leading companies are reevaluating how data needs are han-
dled internally. For his part, Mr. Taylor of 1-800-Flowers.com says brands need to develop higher-level, cross-departmental
data scientists.

“To get the most of a DMP, you need someone on the team who understands digital marketing, the deeper technology and
data analytics,” he says. “If you don’t have that, you’ll struggle to get the most out of your data.”

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• Take it slowly. You don’t need to do it all at once.

Even after you invest in a DMP, remember that you don’t need to make that big-picture vision happen all at once. Mr.
Schoen suggests making the broad-based investment, but starting in one tactical area and ramping up from there. “Be
smart about how you approach the rollout. Start perhaps by being focused on improving something like your website
experience—a place where there are lots of inputs but one output. Then grow your data efforts from there.”

• Finally, keep watching as DMPs and technology continue to evolve—and be prepared to adjust to take ad-
vantage of what they can offer.
DMPs are evolving to reflect the current technology as well as to address marketers’ growing need for cross-channel mea-
surement and marketing across new channels such as mobile.

Mobile has changed the game, Mr. Gatto says. Dealing with yet another customer

67.4%
device—a mobile phone in addition to a desktop computer or tablet, and often multiple
phones in a household—has presented some headaches in terms of connecting consum-
er data across channels. But more significantly, he says, “The emergence of the mobile
device has given companies an opportunity to think about a real single identifier when I hope that
trying to connect customers through the purchase cycle.”
future DMPs
The switch to mobile identifiers is moving DMPs into a new phase, Mr. Gatto says, where
marketers will be able to connect data across not just digital and mobile, but also phone
will give me a
and television as well. “The new generation of DMPs will be able to help make sense of better single
the same user who interacts with a brand’s content across a whole set of devices.”
view of the
That evolution is happening just in time. When asked what they wish their current DMP
could provide, more than 60% of respondents to the Ad Age-Neustar survey said “ac-
consumer
curate cross-device linkages to consistently and accurately identify consumers.” Similarly,
when asked what they hoped a future DMP would provide, respondents’ top answer
across digital
was “a better single view of the consumer across digital and offline experiences.” and offline
That’s what Mr. Gatto calls the “single persistent identifier key. [It] helps you tie all the experiences.
data together—whether you call it a DMP or not.” —Ad Age-Neustar survey

To make the most of their data investments in today’s marketing world, brands need a
solution that helps determine the right spending on both traditional and digital media. That evolving solution will need to
manage internal customer data across departments, merge it with the anonymous data of a DMP for optimal segmenting
and targeting, and then apply the right attribution system to measure the results of those targeting efforts.

Says Mr. Gatto, “We are entering a whole new phase of where DMPs are going to go: to really leverage what a brand
knows about its customers and how that can be used to provide content that makes sense, and ultimately translate that
into prospects and customers.”

ABOUT THE SURVEY: The Advertising Age-Neustar online research survey was conducted in August 2015 by third-party research firm
Advantage Business Research. The final survey findings are based on 290 respondents: 56.6% agencies and 43.4% marketers. The margin
of error for the total of 290 respondents of the survey, at a 95% confidence level, is +/- 5.7 percentage points.

January 2016 11
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