I was wrong!!!

... and I am incredibly happy to admit it.

For a long time I have been berating people with a challenge: I ask people what their favourite TV (of all time) ad is. Everyone has one. In fact most people have several (mine: Honda Cog and Apple 1984, if you were wondering).

I then ask people what their favourite programmatic or retargeting ad is. The response is somewhere between a blank or incredulous look, or straight out laughter at the ridiculousness of the question.

My point is - why. Why with all the investment in technology is our industry not able to create campaigns that genuinely delight consumers.

This matters because creating ads that generate real value and interest to customers is the key to client adoption of these technologies and, more importantly, the solution to fixing the adblocking problem. 

So you can imagine how happy I was when someone recently showed me a campaign that has gone instantly to the top of my list of favourites: the 3M campaign for Post It Notes from Cannes in 2015 (yes I am fully aware that its now a year on and that I am late to this party). 

The campaign has a brilliant insight about the annoyance people feel being retargeted by constant messages about stuff they either no longer want or actually bought, and turns this frustration into a clever utility. The use of technology here is simple but critical to the ability to execute the campaign idea.

So I was wrong. There is great (and I really mean great) programmatic creative out there.

And I'm delighted to admit that I was wrong because this proves something that I have been banging on about: when creative teams really understand and are inspired by all that has been made possible with all the technology and targeting that media is using today, the results can be incredible.

All of which makes marketers better marketers, and consumers less inclined to want to run a million miles when they see an ad. 

And that's good.