“Our platform training academy focuses on digital inclusion and enables us to mobilise our collective technical knowledge and DV360 expertise to support individuals with the digital skills they need to master the Display and Video 360″ – Aniketh Kulkarni
Name: Aniketh Kulkarni
Position: Programmatic Director, Strategy & Operations – APAC
Experience: Physicist and Techie. 12+ years experience in digital media and programmatic.
What is your role at Bidmath and which city do you work in?
I am currently working as a Programmatic Director at Bidmath, overseeing the global programmatic and data hub. Managing advertisers across data driven programmatic strategies to supporting our brand’s activate custom algorithms using log level data.
Bidmath gives me the opportunity to act as a trusted advisor to clients regarding ad technology and data. I lead the DV360 end to end services covering self service, implementation and platform training which enables me to make an invaluable contribution to the client’s business throughout their programmatic journey.
What did you do prior to joining Bidmath?
I was with Mindshare in the Philippines handling Unilever’s Programmatic and Social digital business. Prior to that I worked at Google/ Accenture focusing on Display and Video 360 account management across all regions.
What do you believe is the upcoming pivotal change that will advance programmatic and how are you preparing for it?
I believe there are two pivotal changes that will advance programmatic.
Utilization of Data: The next level challenge for the industry is how effectively we will use available data from DSPs. Currently most clients are not fully utilizing this log level data, which supports more effective optimization of campaigns. The key challenge is correctly identifying the segments that are most useful from impression level data and making sense of that data for activation, which often requires a combination of different job roles. At Bidmath we develop custom algorithms for clients leveraging their own data for usage across their own campaigns.
The industry is moving away from old campaign performance metrics like CPM, CPV, etc and new custom or aggregated metrics such as viewable cost per completed view are more important than views. These metrics allow advertisers to deliver more efficiency building value so that they can eventually move away from traditional buying metrics.
Transparency: Increasingly advertisers are asking how much they are paying for each impression or view and are looking for further access, control and accountability. Control and accountability translates to advertisers pushing for direct ad technology stack license and full access to their own data.
What are the main barriers for clients looking to implement machine learning in programmatic buying today?
The need for roles such as data scientist and analyst to cleanse data and make meaningful insights from it is one of the barriers, but equally gaining access to data such as log level data in the first instance can be a barrier if clients do not own their own DSP seat.
Also clients need to invest in the resources and people. Often we notice that clients are not ready to invest because they are unaware of the ROI and most importantly lack having someone who understands the technology use cases to develop a use case for machine learning and an idea of what success would look like e.g. Understanding the ROI of your machine learning tactic.
Bidmath recently launched a platform training academy for DV360, what kind of participants join these sessions and why?
Our platform training academy focuses on digital inclusion and enables us to mobilise our collective technical knowledge and DV360 expertise to support individuals with the digital skills they need to master the Display and Video 360 across fundamentals, optimisation and private marketplace buying.
We have separate courses for beginners to experienced individuals. The trainees must take these courses as part of a curriculum based on their experience level, we have technical trainers from a strong Google Marketing Platform background able to communicate in several different languages.
What is the most interesting thing about you?
I create a more relaxed, open atmosphere during work meetings and maintain mentorship as a key priority for all of our staff members working in the programmatic hub. My favorite cuisine is Biryani and I’m aiming for a world tour in the next 2 years. My favourite place is Amsterdam. I’m most scared of gaining weight.
