62 per cent of media owners consider programmatic buying the most important factor in ensuring future success for their businesses, a new survey shows. Content marketing also ranked highly in importance, showing that most businesses are looking for advertising that is highly targeted and provides a rich experience for consumers.

The study of UK media owners, conducted by Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), showed that 85 per cent believe media consumption will increase over the next year, with a quarter predicting an increase of 20 per cent or more. This increase will likely be driven by mobile technology, with 52 per cent claiming that tablets are the most exciting platform right now, and 49 per cent believing it to be mobile phones.

Interestingly, while tablets, mobiles and apps were all considered exciting platforms, they were also believed to be undervalued by commercial partners, with around a third of all respondents believing there were unexploited opportunities in all three platforms.

“This year, in addition to re-examining the questions we posed to media owners in 2013, we also asked them about areas where we are seeing rapid growth such as content marketing and data driven programmatic delivery with over 60 per cent acknowledging the growing importance of both within a communications plan,” said Steve Parker, co-CEO at SMG.