BOSTON — In collaboration with Team Detroit, DataXu, a digital marketing management (DMM) platform provider, today announced that the companies enabled Ford Motor Co. to achieve double-digit campaign improvements using an co-developed strategic approach called Programmatic Premium.

Marking the first use of the approach in the digital marketing industry, DataXu's data-driven, impression-level decision making was applied to Ford's premium direct advertising buys on automotive sites, matching 15 different car and truck model campaigns to the most receptive buyers.

Ford's traditional approach to premium guaranteed buys included displaying a series of ads with multiple messaging concepts in random rotation based on assumptions and historical performance. The new approach yielded a 20 percent increase in consumer action rates across all optimized campaigns, compared to baseline campaigns using their traditional approach.

"Ford is committed to providing customers with the best brand experience possible," said Erica Bigley, digital marketing manager at Ford Motor Co. "Programmatic premium taps into the analytics power of DataXu's DX3 platform and enables us to leverage the technology for efficiencies across our broader media plan. Ultimately, the joint team delivered a market-driven solution specifically tailored to our needs and objectives."

Digital marketing management platforms have proven their value in enabling advertisers to capitalize on programmatic buying for exchange-traded media. However, global advertisers tend to spend the majority of their digital budgets — approximately 85 percent, based on industry statistics — on direct-sourced buys on premium and endemic sites, because of the close alignment with target audience profiles and the guaranteed high-quality context in which ads appear. According to eMarketer, U.S. online advertising spending reached $32.03 billion in 2011. With Programmatic Premium, 85 percent of that spend (roughly $27 billion) can now be optimized through Programmatic Premium.

"Programmatic Premium is a powerful new use of the DX3 digital marketing platform," said John Gray, senior vice president and director of interactive media at Team Detroit. "As a strategic partner, we understood the power of the DX3 platform, so we developed a pioneering approach beyond just buying inventory. By applying DataXu's proven technology in a new way, we produced double-digit improvements in consumer engagement and cost-efficiency."