Creative programmatic ads attract brand marketers and tech investors
The move from Flash to HTML5 has helped tech vendors develop systems for what they call 'creative programmatic'. Advertiser and investor money is flowing to creative programmatic startups like PaperG, Persio and Spongecell. Persio has attracted clients like H&M, Kellogg's and Hilton to creative programmatic with a focus on mobile. "What we focus on and what I think the promise of programmatic creative is, is matching the creative to the hundreds or thousands of audience segments being created by data-management platforms like Oracle's BlueKai," said Victor Wong, CEO of PaperG.

Believe it or not, 100 variations of the same ad are not enough for some digital marketers anymore. That's one of the reasons the stars appear to be aligning for tech vendors that have been developing systems for what they call creative programmatic advertising.

Creative and programmatic once seemed incompatible, but here's what is helping bring the two together. The long-called-for movement for makers of display ads to evolve from using Flash software to HTML5 is finally upon us, underscored by Amazon's switch to HTML5-only promos and The Washington Post committing to publishing its content on Facebook with the software.