Recent figures show 66% of the media industry expect automated media buying to increase next year. The Festival of Media Global have surveyed 100 media agencies, media owners and brands to find out how they are adapting to the changes digital technology will bring to the role of a media planner.

The survey found the general consensus amongst the industry was positive, and most believed that media agencies were adapting well, however they found pockets of concern  over a lack of industry standards and transparency, and the disadvantage of a lack of human input that comes with using technology-centric media planning and buying technology.

What the survey found:

• 66% of this surveyed say they expect automated media buying to increase next year,
• 26% of the group indicating they feel this increase will be substantial,
• 63% say they expect an overall increase in automated media planning,
• 20% believing this will be substantial, and
• 55% agree automated media on the whole has increased in the past year with 22% saying substantially.

According to 63% of the respondents, the main benefit of automated media transacting is the time and resources it saves. 35% said the second most important benefit was ensuring clients are getting the best media value while 33% say automated media platforms reduce waste and human error. 29% say they enable brands to run more campaigns across more media outlets.

The study found respondents saw the biggest draw back to automated media systems is the lack of human input. A lack of industry standards and a lack of transparency with current systems available were also concernes.

The respondents were on either side of the fence when it came to the importance of the evolving media buyers role, with 18% say it will become more important yet another 18% feel it will become less important. 38% said they feel media agencies are embracing automation and looking at ways of working progressively with it but 25% say they are doing the opposite and are acting defensively and not embracing the new technology.

Despite the attention generated by automated media platforms, the study found it currently makes up 5% or less of their media strategy.