This July the first programmatic sale of print advertising took place in the Czech Republic, and it happened on the R2B2 platform. ZenithOptimedia bought a full-page ad for Mercedes in the magazine Ego!, an insert in the newspaper Hospodářské noviny.
Recent test runs have involved a wide range of advertisers and publishers who have expressed interest in the purchase or sale of programmatic advertising in print media so that they could try out a functioning test platform without any obligation.
There are currently ad placements available from publishers such as Economia and MAFRA. Registered advertisers include Alexandria, Blue Style, Československá obchodní banka, HBO Europe, KKCG, T.S.Bohemia, and Vodafone Czech Republic.
Media agencies are also placing ads – among others Adexpres.com, B2B Group, Boomerang Publishing, Fragile Media, iProspect, KNOWLIMITS Group, Magnas Media, MarketUP, MÉDEA INTERACTIVE, MQI Brno, OMD, OPera Media, Pria System, RobertNemec.com, Starcom Mediavest Group, Sun Marketing, and ZenithOptimedia Czech Republic.
Standardized Ad Requirements for Print Media Are Coming Soon
As the next step in a series of innovative projects, the Czech technology company R2B2 is now analyzing the possibility of simplifying the creative production process for print. A large number of print media publishers exist on the market, and each of them requires a creative with different parameters. Theoretically, if an advertiser wanted to buy a full-page ad in each of those media, it would be necessary to make as many as 50 different creatives. R2B2 wants to change this impractical situation and make advertisers’ and publishers’ work easier by introducing standardized ad requirements which could be used for all media.
R2B2 would like to make use of their previous experience with standardization from the online environment in print media. Standardization and automatization are common practice today in all sectors, including advertising. They guarantee transparency and efficiency.
“We are currently mapping the technical and procedural requirements. The goal is to include all the parameters creatives must fulfill on the R2B2 platform. Then they will meet the requirements of the press exactly,” says Stanislav Mottl, manager at R2B2.
Introducing this standardization won’t place any burdens on publishers. On the contrary, it eliminates the situation where the advertiser sends an unsatisfactory creative and it’s necessary to go over the requirements in great detail. The new feature in R2B2’s platform can guarantee publishers that they will get creatives which fulfill all of the parameters.
Stanislav Mottl explains: “An important condition for the creation of such standardization is an in-depth understanding of the requirements of both publishers and advertisers. It isn’t possible to do if we don’t know the details regarding printers, the production process, the properties of the creatives, and the actual process of printmaking. All of these criteria must be taken into consideration and must meet the requirements of all parties involved.”