• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, June 16, 2014

Mondelez International, the CPG brand behind Oreo, Triscuits and other snack foods, is taking a programmatic approach to video advertising via a partnership with TubeMogul.

Mondelez will use TubeMogul’s demand-side platform (DSP) to plan, buy and serve video ads via programmatic. It will also use TubeMogul to audit ads and measure viewability, even if the ads are bought direct with publishers, through ad networks, etc.

Additionally, MediaVest -- Mondelez International’s agency of record in North America -- will establish a programmatic media-buying team specifically for Mondelez’ video buys through TubeMogul. The size of the team is still being determined.

While this new MediaVest team will handle “day-to-day trading and strategy,” per a TubeMogul representative, Mondelez will retain data ownership and make technology decisions.

The result is a video-buying strategy that is “neither fully in-house nor fully outsourced to the agency,” the rep said. The Mondelez deal is similar in structure to the partnership TubeMogul struck with Lenovo late last year.

According to Adweek, which covered the story late Sunday, Mondelez expects to spend 50% of its $200 million marketing budget on digital channels by 2016. While it’s unclear how much of that will be spend via programmatic, the company’s partnership with TubeMogul -- and the investment by MediaVest to support the partnership -- suggests Mondelez is not just dipping a toe in the water.

“The automation of media-buying in general will transform the way that media is bought,” said Bonin Bough, vice prsident of global media and consumer engagement at Mondelez. “We are entering into a world of real-time buying.”

Mondelez’ bet on programmatic comes just weeks after Ad Age said Procter & Gamble plans to buy 70% of all of its digital ads via programmatic by the end of 2014.

“Here’s what the dirty little secret about all of this is: Engagement rates are down on commercials, so we hit a point of diminishing return earlier and earlier on our television investments," said Bough. "Yes, the perceived reach that we used to have is still there, but in actuality the effective reach is being decreased, and the only way for us to get that back is by video.”

Mondelez will use TubeMogul’s software for video buys in the U.S. and Canada to start, with potential expansion to markets in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, per a release.