Programmatic and the Attention Economy
The productive tension
Programmatic as unprecedented precisionandas unprecedented waste
the same technology enables both in the same transaction
The synthesis
Programmatic advertising is simultaneously the most precise targeting system ever built and the largest known source of wasted marketing spend in history. These are not contradictions; they are consequences of the same architecture. The resolution is not to abandon programmatic but to stop measuring what it is easy to measure (impressions, clicks, viewability) and start measuring what actually builds businesses (human attention, incremental reach, brand effects over time). Precision without attention is just cheap waste at scale.
Learning objectives
- →Explain how the programmatic supply chain works end-to-end (advertiser, DSP, ad exchange, SSP, publisher, RTB)
- →Quantify the scale of waste in programmatic using the ANA 2023 Transparency Study and related evidence
- →Distinguish viewability from attention and explain why the MRC standard is a low bar
- →Apply Nelson-Field's active/passive attention framework to media planning
- →Critique the "precision targeting" narrative using P&G, Hwang, and Hoffman's evidence
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