• by Phyllis Fine , Staff Writer, July 24, 2014

There's a "huge gap" between the marvels of programmatic technology and what's been accomplished so far in creative, said Stephanie Waddle, Group Media Director, Deutsch LA, addressing the theme of the OMMA RTB LA panel, "Can Creative Do The Math?"

Panel moderator Bryan Noguchi, SVP, Media Director, R2C Group, illustrated the theme with his story about how, eight years ago, he was researching dog doors for a new home and found himself followed around online for weeks by, you guessed it, ads for dog doors. At the time he thought such targeting was "awesome." Years later, after getting the chance to see "how amazing our ad technology is now," he was disheartened to find that not much had changed.  He moved to a new house, researched dog doors, and again found himself targeted for weeks afterward by ads for dog doors.

Panelists tried to identify the reasons for this lag in creative -- among them "standard banner sizes" available in programmatic, according to Stefan Kosel, GM Product, Reactx. "Forget about fixed sizes," said Kosel. "Publishers don’t have fixed size pages, they have responsive design."

Opening up formats would help with another challenge: "Trying to get creatives excited" about the possibilities of imaginative work combined with technology, noted Waddle.