Insights and recommendations on how brands can face the COVID-19 crisis through programmatic levers

1. Covid-19 Impact on Programmatic Buyings
Insights, Benchmarks and Recommended Tactics

2. Introduction
Covid-19 is strongly impacting global markets.
Some Advertising budgets have been cut, postponed or reallocated
Brands are reviewing their digital strategies for Q2 and Q3 in order to:
○ Protect their sustainability
○ Adapt their messaging to short-term consumer needs
○ Take into account new media consumption behaviors
○ Ensure Brand-safety is maintained

3. Combining third party studies and our own insights,
Smart underlines 5 trends around marketing efforts during covid-19
1. Maintain overall digital presence
2. Avoid reliance on short-term performance
3. Adapt strategy and messaging to better answer new consumer needs
4. Find safe places to deliver
5. Get ready to engage new audiences

4. Since February, countries are progressively adopting
quarantine measures that led to an explosion of online
traffic.
The traffic growth has been huge on sites and apps
(+45% recorded at Smart -details on next slide)
1. Maintain overall digital presence
Even during a crisis, brands can
continue to engage their audiences
According to IAS study of consumers’
perceptions concerning coronavirus
content, when seeing an ad in a
coronavirus related content,
78% of respondents report
that their sentiment toward
the brand remains
unchanged.¹
¹IAS study, Coronavirus Ad Adjacency, A consumer Study, March 2020

5. Traffic increased with
disparities on pages about
Smart traffic 2nd half of March 2020 vs 1st half
+45%
of auctions available on Smart RTB+ inventory
+ Some publishers are being more flexible with advertiser
blocking rules, for example, some are now allowing
Gaming advertisements
News
Food
&
Drinks
Hobbies
Sport Culture
Focus on
Mobile web +50%
Mobile in-app +60%
CTV/Set-up-box +83%
Traffic decreased
on pages about

6. ‘...depressed ad prices may make long-term
brand-building more attractive to marketers.
And if a demand shock is sustained, brands
may look to build long-term positive
feelings during a period in which
consumers cannot buy their products or
services’²
‘[...]businesses should be preparing now to
turbocharge their investments in marketing
and promotion. All companies will be fighting
to restore their balance sheets, and that will
be the moment to make a serious impact in
terms of market share by fully optimizing both
marketing and pricing.’¹
2. Avoid reliance on short-term performance (1/2)
¹ Getting the Price Right to Strengthen Your Business in a Time of Crisis, Amadeus Petzke, Boston Consulting Group
² Looking Back at the Great Recession, as the World Faces a Coronavirus Pandemic - emarketer Mar20
Branding to strengthen post-crisis business

7. 2. Avoid reliance on short-term performance (2/2)
Branding is key to ensure long-term
engagement with consumers
+ remain Top-of-Mind
More easily reach your target because of:
- less competition on Demand
- increased Supply
What’s actionable through programmatic?
- Branding formats such as Video and
Rich Media formats (eg. Sublime new
formats co-branded with Brut)
- Branding KPIs, through high completion
rate targeting, available through PMPs
at Smart
- Branding sales channel: Programmatic
Guaranteed

8. Branding campaign example - Ikea¹
¹IKEA vous intime de profiter de votre maison, La Réclame, March 2020

9. Programmatic advertising
enables media buyers to test
and implement several
tactics with flexibility in order
to optimize the impact of each
campaign
3. Adapt strategy and messaging to better answer new consumer needs (1/2)
According to the IAB study
Coronavirus Ad Spend Impact: Buy-side, Mar 27th
More than a third (35%) of advertisers are adjusting their
in-market tactics and are increasing:
Audience
targeting +38%
OTT/CTV
device
targeting +35%

10. Google search data¹ reveals 5 behaviors:
● Assembling critical information
● Discovering connections
● Praising everyday heroes
● Adjusting to changes in their routines
● Taking care of themselves and other
‘In the Future, The Focus Of Brand
Positioning Will Be On The Question: How
Can We Create Value For Our Community?’²
3. Adapt strategy and messaging to better answer new consumer needs (2/2)
Adapt messaging: time to change?
¹Google search data reveals how brands can help during the coronavirus pandemic, Tara Walpert Levy/April 2020/Search,Consumer Insights
²How To Adjust Your Brand Strategy In The Time Of Coronavirus, Forbes, Mar 30th

11. 4. Find a safe place to deliver
Control the context
to ensure message relevancy
Rely on traditional media, which are
more trusted
Safe editorial content remains key
Use semantic contextual targeting power to target or
exclude specific verticals
With semantic data in real-time you ensure the accuracy of
the delivery without decreasing the potential reach.
Avoid Fake News
environments
to maintain trust

12. 4. Find a safe place to deliver - Smart’s Semantic offering
Covid-19
Food and Drink
All Segments are available to
targeting or exclusion
Home & Garden
Family & Parenting
Sport
Smart’s proprietary natural language processing
algorithm (NLP) uses artificial intelligence to analyze the
true meaning of our publishers’ content, in real-time.
Combine the power of Semantic Contextual with PMPs
efficiency with Deal+ Semantic Contextual packages
1 deal ID to access cross-publisher inventory on one
specific context
+ Easy + Immediate + Scalable
Available through major DSPs
Available for international campaigns
and many more

13. 4. Find a safe place to deliver - Focus on News websites
Traffic on News website is significantly increasing
During the lockdown in EU, Comscore reported between +53%
and +63% traffic increase on News websites
The 4As¹ in calling advertisers to not block all news publishers
by default and better ensure brand-safety suitability using other
criteria.
David Cohen, President of the IAB who ‘ask[s] all brands, agencies,
ad verification firms, and other companies in the digital advertising
supply chain not to block the news’²
They continue to advertise
on Premium News websites
at Smart:
● Food
● Telecom
● Home / Decoration
● Software and platforms
● Clothing
● Jewellery
● Computers & electronics
● Insurance
¹The American Association of Advertising Agencies, which control more than 85% of total U.S. advertising spend
²Brands can save American lives during the coronavirus crisis by running ads next to news coverage of the pandemic, David Cohen, Business Insider, Mar 20

14. 5. Get ready to engage new audiences
For e-businesses
‘Some are also opening up new channels of communication
and preparing to welcome whole new audiences.’
‘The digital commerce acceleration will force business to
revisit and even reimagine their digital strategy in the interest
of capturing new marketplace opportunities and fair
share of new digital customer segments.’¹
‘Miss Fresh, an online
retailer in China, claims it
has experienced a
237% increase in users
aged 40 and older since
the outbreak began’¹
Adjust your audience targeting
plan:
Target unmatched cookies
Address new data segments
¹Channel Shift: Prioritizing Digital Commerce Navigating the human and business impact of COVID-19, Accenture, Mar 2020

15. Our Team is there to help.
Feel free to ask us!
Take care.