In the interests of helping to educate the mainstream marketing community, ExchangeWire has this year struck an agreement with trade body ISBA – the voice of British brand advertisers – to offer its members free entry to ATS London.

ATS London – the industry's leading programmatic advertising conference – will be hosted next month on 8 September where leading figures from both the buy- and sell-side of the ad tech sector will amass to debate issues facing the industry, as well as look at challenges in the 12-18 months ahead.

Learn from the leading minds of ad tech

Leading minds from the ad tech sector including Brian O’Kelley, AppNexus, CEO, and Dr Boris Mouzykantskii, IPONWEB CEO and chief scientist, will deliver keynote addresses, and discuss some of the most complex of challenges facing the industry, along with leaders from companies such as Yahoo!, Adobe, SalesForce & Google as well as some of the media industry's most powerful buying groups. As always, these attendees will be on hand during the numerous networking opportunities to offer their guidance for those new to the industry.

The UK ad tech sector has a lot to be proud of, in a few short years it has rapidly accelerated the rate of adoption of programmatic advertising so far that it is now an established part of the UK digital advertising landscape (forecasts estimate that it will account for 50% of all spend within the next year, if not already).

Surely soon, programmatic will account for over half the amount spent on digital display, the tide of this technology is irresistible, but this is not to say that all barriers have been removed for its adoption.

Still a lack of understanding

Despite all the agency trading desks (ATD), and industry reports estimating the rise of this technology, there is one issue that must be addressed, and that’s a comparative lack of understanding from brand advertisers (i.e. the folks that ultimately sign the checks).

To back this point up, a recent report by research firm WARC, the IAB Europe and AppNexus demonstrates a: “Shortage of programmatic skills and a lack of client marketer understanding which limits budget allocation,” according to Graham Wylie, AppNexus, Senior Director of Marketing, EMEA & APAC.

This is why ExchangeWire is offering free access to ATS London for brand advertisers; to help buoy the market through spreading understanding of programmatic technology, as well as the dynamics it is helping to produce, among the upper tiers of the industry.

True, the larger brands out there (such as FMCG behemoths like P&G and Unilever) are starting to build their own trading desks, which shows an understanding of the benefits of this technology. But more often that not, the running of these trading desks is outsourced to their media agencies, which begs the question; who is going to scrutinise the running of these operations?

No matter how much of a laissez-faire attitude a brand-side marketer takes to the running of their trading desk, a working knowledge of its day-to-day operations is a must for responsible contemporary media practice.

Why brands should attend ATS London and not alternatives?

It is also true that there are already several attempts to help further understanding of the issues surrounding programmatic advertising, and its associated technology, with the IAB Europe recently lifting the lid on a pan-European Programmatic Trading Task Force as part of its education-drive.

This is just one example. But as is often observed, many of these initiatives and offers of free training are often dominated by the commercial interests of a few (if not one single vendor), that are likely to tailor said initiatives to their own agenda/narrative.

However, as a strictly NO-PAY-TO-PLAY event ATS London will not be compromised by any such commercial interests, offering attendees (both experienced ad tech veterans, and the uninitiated alike) the most relevant and engaging content debated in an open and concise manner.

A fully comprehensive agenda for the day’s proceedings, which will take place on 8 September at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, can be found here.