This article was written for ANA Forward and originally published on the ANA website.

A video ad server is the foundation of the advertising technology stack. It's also one of the most misunderstood, wrongly veiled in an illusion of complexity and sophistication. In large part, this is due to the rapid evolution of the digital ecosystem and its swift coupling with the complex art and science of programmatic media buying and data-driven audience decisioning.

It has been a tumultuous couple of decades as the internet changed the face of marketing — and thank goodness it did. Reaching consumers today across any screen is nothing short of game changing.

But the act of playing an ad on a screen is wrongly shrouded in myth. It's time to shine a light on some of the misconceptions surrounding video ad serving and see it clearly as a non-subjective logistical step in the campaign activation workflow.

Here are four myths about video ad serving and why marketers shouldn't give them a second look.

1. Selection Requires an Extensive Amount of Planning, Buying, and Ad Ops Expertise
Video ad serving is not some kind of dark art. At the core, it is the mechanism to play precisely formatted creative assets from the cloud in response to an ad call, according to the media plan and based on targeting parameters. Zero art, all workflow science.

It is the essential system that powers the magic of brilliant digital teams.

2. The Right Solution Depends on One's Digital Media Plans and Buying Strategies
Video ad serving technology is the software component that comes into play after the plan is approved and the buys are in place. The video ad server is the engine that makes it happen, associating the correct ad creative with each media placement and collecting the return path data for real-time optimization.

Along the rapid blur of change, ad serving was understood to be — and viewed as — part of the media buying process. It's time to welcome more stakeholders to the table when selecting a video ad serving solution because there are inherent dependencies on other critical workflow steps, like preparing the creative assets and ensuring rights compliance.

3. Video Ad Serving Is Inseparable from a Brand's Demand-side Platform (DSP)
Ad serving has become conflated with other parts of the tech stack, when, in reality, it stands on its own as the mechanism for associating the correct marketing message with each media opportunity. It is simply the technology that instantly reacts to an ad call from the DSP to play the right, perfectly formatted creative.

In fact, there are many benefits to selecting a video ad server-of-record that becomes the independent, single source of data no matter how plans and buying strategies shift or change.

4. Selecting a Video Ad Server Only Affects the Digital Video Ad Ops Team
The digital experts should absolutely lead the discussion regarding digital ad technology, and the video ad server should stand up to the most robust selection criteria. But this critical decision should not be made in a vacuum. In fact, it is fair to expect more tangential benefits from a video ad-serving solution than once thought possible.

For example, marketers should consider the power of a seamless connection from the brand's creative asset library straight into the video ad server campaign setup software. And while digital teams are not traditionally accountable for rights tracking, one can well imagine the value of leveraging simple technology to track assets across every screen to prevent unnecessary infringement of rights agreements.

Expect More from a Video Ad Server
Selecting a video ad serving solution must meet the requirements of the digital activation team. They will be the day-to-day users, working in the software to set up, launch, and optimize plans. In fact, marketers want their external and in-house agency teams doing just that — flawlessly executing campaigns and continuously optimizing them. Marketers also want their teams to deliver on a creative messaging strategy. They do not want them spending days or weeks hunting down the right assets, waiting on digital transcodes, or dealing with endless file rejections. And, marketers want to avoid costly rights infractions from far flung assets playing across an untethered media landscape that take dollars away from working media.

Broadening the goals and ideal selection criteria for a brand's video ad server-of-record, will reap rewards. It is fair and prudent to expect integration across every non-subjective step of campaign activation. Video ad serving is an increasingly vital and foundational piece of omnichannel campaign activation workflow. Its rightful place is tightly connected with all the other interrelated steps required to move creative at the speed of media.

It is time to get past the idea that video ad serving is beyond marketers' understanding and that its connections with digital media buying and data-driven targeting form a knot that can't be undone. Video ad serving is a basic, albeit critical, technology component of the entire convergent TV creative activation process. Seeing it as such can open opportunities and solve a myriad of widespread issues in one fell swoop.

Read more:

• Housing Video Ad Creative Where Everyone Can Get It
• Old TV Habits Die Hard, but It’s Time
• Marketing Triumph in the Age of Agility

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