This week on AdExchanger Talks, we bring you a discussion with Matt Prohaska, principal at Prohaska Consulting. Matt will deliver a workshop presentation on programmatic in-housing at AdExchanger’s upcoming PROGRAMMATIC I/O San Francisco conference on April 10-11.
Among the most recognized programmatic advisers, Matt Prohaska sits atop a network of dozens of consultants who offer training and guidance to brands, publishers, tech firms and investors.
His eponymous company started as a partner to publishers grappling with how to structure their sales teams, create data products and integrate technology. Today it also supports the buy side, giving counsel in areas such as contract ownership and agency management.
In this episode, Prohaska describes some common misconceptions about in-housing and how brands are evolving their partner models.
“It’s easy to think this is a binary decision,” he says. “But it’s all about the gray area. It’s a spectrum.”
For instance, on the topic of contract ownership, he says, “If you’re tapping your agency only to handle media, then the DSP is probably the only platform they should be contracting.”
And why not? Agencies have been holding DSP paper for years. “Two years ago we used to ask agencies, how many DSPs are in your stable? And it would be 25 to 30,” he says, including channel-specific DSPs, regional DSPs and vertical DSPs. “Now that answer is down to about five to 10 DSPs.” But it’s still a lot for one brand to manage.
When in-housing fails, he says the most common reason is talent. “A lot of folks don’t recognize the human element and how difficult this is to do themselves.”
Another reason brands backtrack on in-housing is more positive: Agencies change for the better. “It’s not so much that the brand failed, but that the agencies change their ways.”
Also in this episode: The hardest part of scaling a consulting business. What does the Association of National Advertisers want? Are rebates still a thing?
