Sacha Bunatyan, global B2C marketing director at the Financial Times, is among the expert speakers who will be in attendance.

Ahead of Get With The Programmatic, we spoke to Sacha to get her views on how the FT uses programmatic and how the technology has impacted the marketing industry.

You can watch her answers in full in this video, and I’ve also summarised them below.

How has the FT used programmatic to promote the brand and sell subscriptions?

According to Sacha, programmatic advertising is hugely important to The FT, as demonstrated by the fact that it recently appointed Elli Papadaki as head of programmatic sales.

Furthermore, The FT’s chief data officer sits on the board of directors and the company employs more than 30 data scientists and analysts.

To ensure this analytical talent is not wasted, the subscriptions and ad sales teams work closely together using “one set of data, one set of segmentation.”

At Get With The Programmatic, Sacha will be able to discuss a programmatic campaign that resulted in a 300% uplift in subscriptions versus the average week.

What do you think makes for an effective programmatic campaign?

Sacha said that effective campaigns require the right balance of a strong message combined with effective use of media.

The data and insights that come out of each campaign should then be evaluated to aid ongoing optimisation and improve decision-making.

How do you think agencies should be responding to brands bringing programmatic in-house?

The thorny question of how agencies fit into the programmatic landscape is one that we’ve discussed a lot in the past.

Sacha said there is “no one-size-fits-all approach”, and the trend at the moment is for businesses to take greater control of their data in order to better understand their audiences.

At the same time Sacha describes the agency role as “multifaceted”, with the core expertise being in connecting brands with the right media.

In future she predicts that we’ll see a hybrid solution where brands will invest more in core competencies and link up with agencies for key partnerships around specific projects or campaigns.

For The FT, a good agency partner is one that can offer a custom, tailor-made approach.

To learn more about the FT’s approach to automated media buying, come to Get With The Programmatic in London on September 21st.