But how prevalent does data-driven buying need to be in the new-look TV, and how are different agencies finding value?
That is what eight executives discussed during Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next, a recently-wrapped Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. Here are the highlights.
1. Spend can be reallocated to incremental audiences
Amobee chief commercial officer Jack Bamberger says his new product CTV Allocator forecasts incremental reach to a linear TV schedule across the ecosystem’s CTV supply space
“We’re able to see a desired reach against strategic audience of 14% less cost for a brand. We were able to put that back into the platform and reallocate those funds to target incremental audiences on behalf of the brand.”
Amobee to “Optimize” The Buy and Sell Side with Tim Spengler and Valerie Bischak
2. Business easy as ACBC
Paul Woolmington, CEO of independent ad agency Canvas Worldwide, says he is heeding what he calls his law of “Accelerated COVID Behaviour Change,” ACBC.
“With a lot of change that we’ve seen in our industry over the decades, you don’t actually viscerally see it. But I think we’re seeing it viscerally in the last 12 months. We need a greater degree of unification … and alignment behind incumbents versus challengers.”
Omnichannel Strategy Demands Agency Integration: Canvas’s Paul Woolmington
3. Alcohol agents look to CTV
Amy D’Souza, Senior Director, Media & Digital Marketing at Constellation Brands, an agency representing beer, wine and spirit brands, says breweries hope connected TV can help make up for declining linear TV audiences.
“Linear TV has played an important role for broad-reach brands like Corona and Modelo in the past. We continue to increase our investment and our overall share towards streaming platforms to really help continue to deliver that broad reach and scale.”
Alcohol Brands Tap CTV To Find Lost Linear Viewers: Constellation’s D’Souza
4. Beer makers double-down on loyal drinkers
Brad Feinberg, North America vice president of media and consumer engagement at Molson Coors, says challenges with audience-based targeting mean he is now using more first-party data from the most loyal audiences.
“We are really ramping up our ability to have a view of consumers that have raised their hand that want to know about our brand (and understanding their) key behaviours or attitudes, then kind of going out and finding them.”
‘We’ll Look for Flexibility at Ad Upfronts’: Molson Coors’ Brad Feinberg
5. Upfront season is evergreen
Despite industry shifts, Dani Benowitz, president of U.S. at Interpublic Group’s Magna Global, says the traditional upfront TV ad sales season is “still an important part of a video mix”.
“We’re a big proponent of the calendar year. Flexibility still remains to be very important to our clients, (but) you’ll see people come back to the upfront as the world is opening up and budgets are becoming more sound.”
Ad Spend Will Diversify During Upfront Sales Season: Magna’s Dani Benowitz
6. Agency data must branch out
Ed Davis, chief product officer of OpenAP, says, whilst media agencies have invested in building their own audience data platforms, they cannot stand alone.
“Breaking that sophisticated knowledge out of their walls and turning it into something that can be actioned on with publishers or with buying systems, that’s always been the friction point.”
Identity Graphs Are Learning To Talk To Each Other: OpenAP’s Davis
7. TV’s ‘monster evolution’
Jay Askinasi, Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe United States, says TV ad planning now has many more buying cues than just date and time.
“The way that inventory is being packaged, the way that you can access it, the channels with which you can access it through and even the definitions of the media types… in the upfront process, you’ll see more so than ever before those worlds coming together a little bit more.”
Endless Endpoints: Finding & Overcoming CTV Ad Complexity With Publicis’ Askinasi
8. Disney’s data builds a broad platform
Lisa Valentino, executive Vice President, Client Solutions & Addressable Enablement, Disney Advertising Sales, says Disney is selling its footprint using data.
“We’ve unified eight networks and many ad-supported addressable platform, Hulu being one of them – which is no easy feat, but it has given us, I think, a great ground to grow and build a future model.”
]]>Rebooting Reach: Disney’s Valentino Combines Scale With Smarts
That is why the company is becoming so interested in advertising through connected TV (CTV) channels.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, JPMorgan Chase’s chief media officer Tracy-Ann Lim explains why she can bank on the new medium.
Targeting the under-served
As more ad buyers switch on to the targeting capabilities in CTV, Lim is one who believes that power can help target specific cultural groups.
“We do love the idea of being able to tailor our messages, access newer audiences with different types of ads that we may have traditionally only caught through social or other digital locations,” Lim says.
“So this is a really interesting opportunity for us, especially as I start to think about our D&I goals and reaching the underserved communities and bringing new products and services to those groups. I think that this is a really great tie in to those strategies.
Impact from clarity
Lim, who once bought TV ads in an agency role herself, has been with JPMorgan Chase since 2019.
She recognizes that consumes are flocking to CTV partly for choice and a reduced ad load. But that, Lim thinks, can work to her advantage.
“It’s done with less ad clutter, it’s not as noisy,” she says. “People are more engaged and there will be more recall.
“The combination, that one-two punch of recall and engagement, should result in stronger business outcomes.
“We hope to see that shake out as we continue to study market by market audience, by audience, and really start to see that outcome.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>- Traditionally heavy investors in TV ads, the channel is losing viewer share.
- Many younger consumers are turning away from alcohol itself.
- The pandemic closed bars, distancing consumers further from the tipples.
Constellation Brands, an agency representing beer, wine and spirit brands, is fighting back by tilting toward connected and streaming TV – now it just needs to measure the impact.
CTV can offset decline
“For our brands at Constellation, the role of connected TV in a lot of cases is to offset some of the reach declines we’re seeing in linear TV,” says Amy D’Souza, Constellation’s Senior Director, Media & Digital Marketing, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
“Linear TV has played an important role for broad-reach brands like Corona and Modelo in the past.
“But, as those ratings are declining, the investments that we’re making in linear continue to contribute to increased frequency and reach is starting to plateau more aggressively as those ratings decline.
“As those ratings declines happen over time, we continue to increase our investment and our overall share towards streaming platforms to really help continue to deliver that broad reach and scale that a lot of our bigger brands are looking looking for.”
Alcohol’s audience challenge
Our latest Business Intelligence report takes a deep dive into the Alcohol: Beer and Spirits category, looking at adspend, business and consumer trends. Read the full report here: https://t.co/fSVqVsAd4D pic.twitter.com/o3ovtttKOJ
— Zenith (@zenith) May 24, 2021
Alcohol brands’ challenge has been crystalized by new research out this month from Zenith. It says:
- Alcohol brands spent 49% of their ad budget on TV in 2020, compared to 24% for brands on average.
- That tactic is waning as younger consumers, particularly, shift away to digital.
- Alcohol brands upped their digital spending from 21% of budgets in 2019 to 24% in 2020, including enhancing websites, creating content and enlisting influencers.
- D2C alcohol sales are expected to continue after the pandemic.
Zenith predicts alcohol brands will reduce their expenditure on television by 2.4% a year to 2023, compared to the 2019 baseline, upping spend on out-oh-home.
Alcohol ad spending shrank by twice as much as ad spend overall during 2020, by 11.6%, but will now grow by 5.3% in 2021, Zenith says.
Holistic measurement quest
Today, Amobee unveils CTV Allocator, a first of its kind planning and portfolio optimization solution designed to help media buyers unify premium direct and programmatic CTV audiences. Read the full release here: https://t.co/OD91twzN0H
— Amobee (@amobee) September 15, 2020
As more spending is put into connected TV, Constellation’s D’Souza wants to find proof of effectiveness.
So she is using technology like Amobee’s CTV Allocator, which forecasts incremental reach to a linear TV schedule across the ecosystem’s largest CTV supply space.
“We’re investing in technology partners and platforms more as a test and learn approach this year to be able to get a better view of how our media is performing holistically across all of the various channels.
“The pandemic has, has caused us to reevaluate our processes that have been historically more rigid and more annual-based. And how do we be more nimble and agile in how we go to market taking advantage of what’s going on in culture right now?”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>“The upfront as a whole is changing. More and more consumption is pivoting away from traditional television,” Ron Amram, senior director of global media at Mars, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “It’s happening slowly, but it’s been more drastic, especially over the last calendar year during COVID.”
Mars is video-centric in its communications strategies for its top brands, he said, which isn’t going to change as the company seeks to reach a mass audience among a variety of linear and digital channels.
“In the world of COVID, we do need a bit more flexibility,” Amram said. “The upfront is important. I still think you’re going to see future brands commit to long-term investment for key properties, sponsorship-like elements and the highest quality inventory. But the upfront as a whole is probably going to diminish in its relative importance, especially during tricky, recession-like times that we’re facing.”
OTT and Digital Video
Mars is broadening its media investment among the over-the-top (OTT) and digital video platforms of its key broadcast networks.
“We’re pivoting toward broader video distribution platforms, whether it’s YouTube or social media or even TikTok,” he said of the social video app that’s popular with U.S. teens. “We’re matching the consumption behaviors of today’s consumers in order to get our reach right.”
A key challenge is optimizing its media investment as viewers spend more time in “walled garden” environments that don’t provide enough data to help compare performance and to avoid overexposing the same consumers to ads.
“We’re investing more and more in research to try and learn what’s working and what’s not working, and what the right balance is,” Amram said. “In the past, we didn’t need to focus on it as much, but in the evolving media consumption shifts of consumers today, and how much that’s accelerated recently, we have to have a stronger understanding of what’s working.”
He said Mars is evaluating multiple research vendors to find media metrics that are correlated to sales. He also foresees more growth in programmatic TV as advertisers seek the same kind of flexibility they have with digital media.
“It’s kind of evolving. It hasn’t hit critical mass yet, but in a world of recession where you’re trying to optimize, have flexibility, measure at speed and optimize your content and media mix in flight, the time is now for these types of things,” he said. “We’re looking at things more holistically than these siloes. The more that you can bring media and collapse it together into one strategic planning and buying tool and platform, the more effective we believe you can be.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>That’s the theory. The reality is that connected TV (CTV) ad buying has far from overcome traditional TV ad buying yet.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Jay Askinasi, Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe United States, describes how CTV is settling down in ad agencies’ buying culture.
Market forecast
EMarketer estimates that US CTV ad spend will grow 48.6% year over year (YoY) to $13.41 billion. That is a small portion of the circa $70 million total US TV ad marketplace.
But the market is changing.
“The big (TV) negotiations … still happen in the traditional upfront time period of June through the summer … and get placed on that broadcast calendar of October through September,” Askinasi says.
“As the platforms and digital publishers become more relevant and more prominent in the long form premium content game, more of that inventory gets pushed into the upfront process.”
Proliferating platforms
Whilst those new entrants offer new advertising opportunities, however, they also usher in new complexity.
Buyers’ grumble goes on – buying ad campaigns across connected TV platforms is difficult due to lack of standardization across separate services.
“There’s been a real change in the quality of inventory that’s available through CTV channels, through new providers, through Amazon, through Roku, through traditional media companies that have started or bought streaming services,” Askinasi says.
“You have end points that are seemingly endless for the media companies to manage. It’s really hard to nail down how to plan and buy CTV.”
The tipping point
He observes two broad uses of CTV in the buyer mix today:
- Linear extension – “on the same age and gender as linear television extended into the same environments through a CTV channel”.
- Audience-based buying – “most of that today, I would say, is still not the linear dollars per se. I think you’ll see a shift in that this year, but it still hasn’t reached mass adoption.”
So, when is the change coming? Askinasi has a clear answer.
“That tipping point will start to happen as more traditional companies migrate their inventory from very legacy archaic systems into everything being DAI (dynamic ad insertion), the inventory avail systems coming together between digital and linear.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>“Those three things are creating very different dialogue depending on who you’re talking to, and putting it together is an interesting project,” said Peter Olsen, executive vice president of ad sales and content partnerships at A+E Networks.
In this conversation with Tim Sprengler, general manager of advanced TV solutions at marketing technology company Amobee, Olsen shared his thoughts about consumer trends and the changing media landscape as the network prepares for the yearly upfront sales season. He said advertisers are looking for a unified view of consumers, which is challenging amid the changes in viewing habits.
“Bringing it back to a media plan and bringing it back to single-source measurement is very frustrating to people,” Olsen said. “We’re looking for companies like Amobee to help unite the industry, for the lack of a better word.”
Like other programmers, A+E has seen a generational shift in viewing habits. The median age of linear TV is 55 and older, while its owned-and-operated digital apps mostly appeal to viewers in their mid-40s and its connected TV channels are popular with consumers in their mid-30s.
“We can hypertarget more on the digital and CTV platforms,” Olsen said, adding that A+E can help advertiser reach audiences across a broad spectrum of programming and viewing devices.
Looking at the growing role of consumer data in audience targeting, Olsen said it’s important to recognize that advertisers ultimately are looking for ways to boost sales and see a strong return on their investments in media.
“There is a bit of an overload with data right now, and an underload of technology to solve the problem,” Olsen said. “There’s a lot of solutions being presented, but what’s the problem they’re trying to solve?”
A+E several years ago began offering guarantees to advertisers that demanded measurable business outcomes.
“We’ve always known that television advertising works,” Olsen said, citing examples where buseinesses see higher foot traffic or sales growth.
The growth of DTC brands has spurred discussion about whether marketers can build a brand while also selling a product. Olsen said he said he doesn’t see too much conflict between the priorities of upper-funnel brand-building and lower-funnel final sales.
“I don’t think the funnel has collapsed. The lower, middle and upper all coincide in the world we’re in,” Olsen said. “Consumers are able to understand a brand and its essence faster than ever.”
As media companies develop more first-party data about consumers and their viewing habits, they’re coming to resemble “walled garden” platforms like social media, internet search and e-commerce companies that have deep troves of data. Olsen sees an opportunity to thrive by partnering with advertisers who also have their own sources of data.
“You can win in that landscape even if you’re not the biggest garden player or the biggest gardener,” Olsen said. “You can actually play off the trends and all the learnings you’re getting from all these partners.”
Upfront sales have become a bigger source of debate as many advertisers push for a buying schedule based on the calendar year, and seek greater flexibility in their media buys. That includes a bigger push into programmatic advertising that allows for more audience-based targeting.
Olsen sees a need for the upfront, despite the growth in programmatic advertising, though “there will be more automation and more data-driven decision-making,” he said.
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>“The ‘muscle memory’ issue is prevalent with all of us. It’s obviously psychology,” Paul Woolmington, CEO of independent ad agency Canvas Worldwide, said in this discussion with Jack Bamberger, chief commercial officer of marketing technology firm Amobee. “We all know we’re uncomfortable changing our behaviors. It takes quite a lot of practice to change your behavior.”
Woolmington said his company is the right size to allow for integration among different specialties, likening it to the “Hall of Justice” from DC Comics that brought together superheroes to fight for a common cause. In the case of advertising, that means pooling resources to plan, strategize and analyze data.
“It’s a B2B journey within an organization built around aligned principles of the individuals,” Woolmington said. “Magic needs to be instilled into it….the operating system is really fundamental.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>That is the view of an experienced advertising exec who has skated on both sides of the ice.
In this video interview by Beet.TV guest host Tim Spengler of Amobee, Vinny Rinaldi, head of activation and audience at GroupM’s Wavemaker, says the new approach is to separate linear from over-the-top TV’s offer, whilst nevertheless treating the two holistically.
OTT + TV
“The way that we’re thinking about this ecosystem more than ever before is separating out,” Rinaldi says. “The reality is that screen, that television ecosystem has … been consumed more than ever before.
“The marketplace has diminishing returns in supply across linear capabilities, (but) we’re still looking at ‘What is the whole screen with these broadcast partner going to give us?’.
“Their capabilities have only grown. There’s a ‘plus’ on the backend of every single broadcast partner right now that allows you to have content at your fingertips. And there is nothing more powerful than that because it’s on the big screen still and those eyeballs are still there.”
Upfronts’ big year
Major broadcast owners’ upfronts presentations kicked off in April, with digital NewFronts continuing into June.
Last year’s TV upfronts were affected by pandemic ad spending constraint and turmoil. Many brands called for a delay to the season.
Many brands have tried to move toward more agile ad-buying approaches, which connected and addressable TV is seen as catering to.
But the move to this kind of buying was underway before the pandemic. Many think the 2021 upfronts is when pandemic agility, declining linear viewership and the emerging comfort with targeted TV buying is when the advanced TV technique will take off.
Holistic approach
“We’re working on (it) really holistically,” Rinaldi adds. “Not only do we have to think about it from a linear perspective, those eyeballs that are leaving.
“What content are they still consuming within those broadcast partners and how do we leverage these new areas like a Peacock, like a Paramount to get integrated for holistic buying ecosystems versus just separating out linear and digital?
“How do we integrate brands’ presence across everything within those environments?
“That’s why the upfronts are still important. I think the discussions in the upfronts are just changing a bit into a much more data-driven conversation.”
Still got it?
Rinaldi’s comments will be welcomed by TV networks as evidence their evolving offering still resonates with the biggest media buyers around.
But Rinaldi says the extent to which Wavemaker buys TV, and different kinds of TV, will vary from brand to brand. Software, he says, is key to making that happen.
“I think we’ve got to hone in and really create a structure with technology as that layer that informs our media ecosystem,” he adds. “And I think from what we’ve seen (in the) early stages as we go to the upfronts, there’s a few platforms who are separating themselves from the pack very quickly and we’re really excited to work with in this data-driven linear ecosystem.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>“The shift toward streaming is going to be probably bigger than it’s ever been this year,” Mark Rotblat, chief revenue officer at Tubi, the AVOD service owned by Fox Corp., said in this interview with Beet.TV. “Advertisers are recognizing they need to go where the eyeballs are.”
Advertisers will expand their spending on AVOD services in the U.S. from $4.4 billion last year to $17.8 billion by 2025, MoffettNathanson Research predicted.
As part of Fox, Tubi gives advertisers greater flexibility to reach audiences among the company’s broader portfolio of linear and digital video channels, which Rotblat describes as programming “pillars.”
“Certainly, there are those that want a place within different pillars,” he said. “Others are looking for ways to be a little bit more fluid in that they want a one-stop shop to then allocate across the different platforms, and be able to do so in a way that reaches their audience more fluidly.”
Rotblat said he expects to see more innovation in the software that marketers and their agencies use for their planning, buying and measurement among various media channels. They also can make quick changes to optimize their campaigns.
“It’s an exciting time for that, and there will be a lot more of that happening this year,” he said. “You know you need to buy streaming. You know you need to reach audiences everywhere, but how much? These planning tools do that.”
Audience-Based Targeting
As an ad-supported company, Tubi is focused on providing programming that drives viewership and engages audiences rather than what urges people to pay a subscription fee, Rotblat said. Tubi’s content recommendation engine makes the experience different for each viewer, based on their preferences.
“For us, it’s about having the largest library — which we have by a long shot — and then having the best personalization,” he said. “We’re using this content intelligence not just to serve our viewers from a personalization standpoint, but also … to develop new tools, new advertising-specific opportunities both in targeting and in insights that help on the context side.”
Rotblut sees Tubi as a hybrid between traditional TV that uses programming context “as a proxy for audience” and digital platforms that offer one-to-one targeting to specific consumers.
“There’s a very deep and rich middle ground where context could be gained in this space that has tens and hundreds of thousands of titles,” he said, “but the genres alone often don’t provide the richness of information that advertisers and agencies need to really understand the context. This is a space where we’re taking those tools for personalization, and our content intelligence, and giving rich insights back to the advertisers.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>“There’s going to be a tipping point,” Dani Benowitz, president of U.S. at Magna Global, the media agency owned by Interpublic Group, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “We are going to see more dollars follow eyeballs. With linear ratings being down what they are, we’re going to see a diversification within video spend — more money going to streaming/digital.”
Some of Magna’s clients will still spend heavily on traditional linear television, given the lift in awareness and sales gains they experience after commercials air, Benowitz said. But she still expects spending on digital video to eventually match the size of the shift in media consumption.
“The upfront is still an important part of the video mix, because there are benefits that come with the upfront — pricing, availability of programming, the flexibility that comes with an upfront,” she said. “We’re a big proponent of the calendar year — we have clients that work in both marketplaces — but the supply-and-demand aspect to the upfront will always still a part of how we do business.”
Advertisers are demanding greater flexibility in their media buying, including calls for a calendar year upfront that matches the timing of their yearly budget planning. The Association of National Advertisers last year published two white papers that outlined proposals to improve the media ecosystem, including the upfront marketplace.
“The ratings erosion is making it harder to do business in the scatter marketplace, but unfortunately, upfront timing will still be what it has been,” Benowitz said. “You’ll see people come back to the upfront as the world is opening up and budgets are becoming more sound — so the upfront will be a big part of people’s mix.”
Connected TV, Audience Identifiers
Connected TV (CTV) usage has grown as households cancel cable and satellite TV service and hook up their TVs directly to the internet. That ensuing shift in viewing habits means that advertisers are using a combination of direct and programmatic buys to reach high-value audiences (HVAs) through digital streaming services.
“We are working on solutions to break down the traditional budget allocation. We are looking at allocations in a quarterly view, and still trying to build in reach guarantees. We’re also leveraging the support of third-party tech to help layer in HVA syndication to help ensure our clients can reach their intended target,” Benowitz said. “Eventually, this should help speed up the optimization process, allowing for our audience guarantees to be met.”
Magna also is working with IPG’s Kinesso, which specializes in data-driven marketing solutions, to develop an audience identifier that pulls in data from various sources including advertisers, media partners and Axciom Marketing Services. Interpublic bought the marketing services unit of Axciom in 2018.
“This ID will help us build HVAs and activate — and then marry everything back and finally report back on full campaign insights and measurement,” Benowitz said.
IPG Mediabrands this month announced a partnership with TikTok, the social video app that’s popular with Generation Z and younger millennials, on a program to bring together brands and content creators for influencer campaigns.
“It’s about content, and linking creators to our clients so we will be successful on the platform,” Benowitz said. “The thing I really love about TikTok is the ability to organically talk to an audience that’s getting harder and harder to reach.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>“The upfront this year in some respects will be similar to years past, but in a handful respects is going to be pretty different,” Dan Aversano, senior vice president of data, analytics and advanced advertising at Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “Use of data, technology and analytics, and how we’re structuring yields is changing the way that we all do business.”
Data and analytics will underpin deal making, as advertisers seek to reach target audiences more effectively, improve media attribution and optimize their spending.
” Every single market is under pressure to make the best use of their marketing dollars,” Aversano said. “Now, you have more and more marketers moving toward zero-based budgeting where they really need to justify their spend and how they’re putting those marketing dollars to work. Optimization is one of the most powerful tools to ensure that.”
Multigoal Optimization Gains Momentum
Instead of looking in the rearview mirror, optimization gives advertisers the tools to look forward, and make better predictions about outcomes — whether the goal is to raise awareness, drive foot traffic or boost sales.
“One of the most interesting pieces around optimization is multigoal optimization. It’s rare that you have a campaign that’s trying to just do one thing,” Aversano said.
Audience-based buying has become a bigger area of focus for Univision among multiple platforms beyond linear TV and traditional radio. As more Hispanic consumers watch video on connected devices like smart TVs and mobile phones, Univision is now rolling out Prende TV as its ad-based video-on-demand (AVOD) service. The broadcaster last month bought Spanish-language streaming service VIX to round out its digital offering.
Underrepresented Audiences
Aversano sees a need for improvements in data about the growing Hispanic consumer market, which has been underrepresented in media plans.
“A lot of the third-party data that’s out in market does not do an adequate job representing our audience of U.S. Hispanics. We at Univision want to help solve that issue,” he said. “We’re investing a lot in our own data as well as working with lots of third parties to ensure their data does a better job of representing what we think is the most underserved audiences in the U.S. today.”
Univision also is investing in data analytics to provide a more unified view of consumers among a variety of platforms, including national, local, AVOD, digital audio and radio.
“We want to be able to aggregate all of that supply and that audience, dress it with a common set of data so that now when somebody tells us there’s a particular segment that they’re interested in, we can effectively put them at the right message on the right screen at the right time, and optimize across all those touchpoints,” he said.
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>An ‘identity’ graph is the collection of data points from disparate devices that, when pieced together, add up to indicate a single person’s holistic media behavior.
For a while, identity graphs were part of the ad-tech arms race, a competitive differentiator for whomever had the best identity databases and the means to connect them. But that is changing.
Identity across walls
“It used to be more associated within a particular walled garden,” says Ed Davis, chief product officer of OpenAP, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
“(People said:) ‘We have the best mouse trap. So come in and in for a penny in for a pound.’
“What I like is this new dynamic that’s emerging, where the actual ID graphs, or the identity that people are building up within their companies, becomes an opportunity to collaborate with other companies.”
Open odyssey
Launched three years ago, OpenAP first aimed to harmonize the meta data descriptions used by a variety of TV broadcasters in order to make selling more scaleable.
Then it made a step-change by launching an actual marketplace through which ad buyers can purchase data-driven TV ads across those networks from OpenAP itself, or else through buying platforms with OpenAP integrations.
A recent update added workflow automation and guaranteed “audience delivery” for cross-platform campaigns, and a later cross-platform initiative mark OpenAP’s own foray in to a space that is consuming everyone in advertising – multi-channel identity graphs.
Connecting it up
Davis thinks the new interconnection of identity graphs is the game-changer.
“What I get excited about is that people are trying to figure out ways to use their various notions of identity to work together instead of a differentiator to try to amass all of the market share around a whole part of our space,” he says.
“It’s really become a way to connect easily, which I think is very productive.
“Having everything start with the audience is important to us because, if all of your downstream audience expressions for targeting a campaign are based off of a single initial activation that the buyer is comfortable with, that unlocks the ability to do cross-platform planning.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>“This year’s upfront is going to look different than it has in the past,” Brad Feinberg, North America vice president of media and consumer engagement at brewing giant Molson Coors, said in this interview with Beet.TV. ” There are external factors at play: whether the content is available. The upfront is as much about the content presentation as it is about how brands are spending their dollars.”
He said he wants to hear more about how TV networks plan to program their linear channels and their digital streaming platforms. With more people consuming video on connected devices like smart TVs and mobile phones, those digital platforms have become more significant for marketers.
Feinberg sees advantages in securing media placements during the upfront sales season, especially for inventory that’s in high demand. He also is looking for flexibility amid the uncertain outlook.
“We will make those commitments where … we want to make sure we have a presence,” he said. “Other than that, we will look for flexibility and we’ll place dollars at the threshold we feel is appropriate and available to meet our minimum needs. We will make changes and shifts across the course of the year, as change in consumer behavior can be unpredictable.”
First-Party Data
When it comes to allocating media dollars to connected TV and programmatic platforms, the top concern is ensuring that inventory is available to buy through automated auctions, he said. Another key concern is transparency to ensure that data-driven media buys are effective at reaching target audiences.
“We are implementing first-party data solutions where we can — really ramping up our ability to have a view of consumers that have ‘raised their hand,’ that want to know about our brand,” Feinberg said. “Those are more of your loyal consumer bases.”
Reaching sports fans is especially important for makers of alcoholic beverages, with at least one survey showing a strong correlation between alcohol consumption and viewing sports. The sports calendar this year is showing signs of getting back to normal after the pandemic led many professional and college leagues to cancel or delay their seasons in 2020.
Source: The Harris Poll, Statista
“I consider it [sports] the competitive battleground of the alcohol beverage category. There are some pretty big players in our space that are all competing for the same eyeballs, and we know our products are enjoyed responsibly while they’re watching live sports,” Feinberg said.
Miller Coors also is looking for ways to engage sports fans who watch games while also participating in social media conversations on their smartphones.
“We want to make sure our brands are showing up in a way that can create engagement — like “the game around the game” concept where it makes sense,” he said.
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>Thanks to new connected TV consumption and new ad selling techniques, things are becoming more flexible than that.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Neil Vendetti, president of US investment at Publicis Groupe’s Zenith – which buys ads on behalf of brands like Verizon, Coty, Toyota, Inspire Brands and RB – says the upfronts are changing.
Upfront and flexible
“The upfront now offers us a lot more opportunity to be flexible,” Vendetti says. “In the past, it was a very simple – we bring money and we are in ourselves pricing type of mechanic.
“And now there’s so much both sides can bring to the table, that it’s different.”
So, what is changing Vendetti cites new capabilities including:
- non-linear TV ad inventory
- evolved deal structures
- the ability to target more effectively through data from a range of sources
After the reset
Major broadcast owners’ upfronts presentations kick off this month, with digital NewFronts continuing into June.
Last year’s TV upfronts were affected by pandemic ad spending constraint and turmoil. Many brands called for a delay to the season.
The whole episode was an instructive lesson in how modern brands want to be agile and responsive in their media spending, perhaps preferring flexibility to being locked in, especially to a traditional medium whose audience is declining.
At the same time, however, new connected TV services have been blossoming, and its ad capabilities include audience targeting and ad outcome attribution.
Looking deeper
“It gives us the opportunity to look a step deeper at the targeting side of it,” Vendetti sees. “We’re trying to build brands, we’re trying to build reach.
“But we’re also trying to find specific audiences and drive specific outcomes, and the ability through our own technology and through third-party technology to be able to activate CTV in that manner is something that we’re trying to bring into the conversation more this year than we have in the past.
“Being able to incorporate CTV strategically into both of those buckets is an important part of the strategy work we’re doing now.”
Back to silos
Even as the capabilities roll out, however, Vendetti is concerned that digital developments are also making life more complex than it ideally should be.
As welcome as connected TV tactics may be, the medium is still splintered – broken up not only by the many different competing viewing options but also the many and varied ways to buy and measure ads placed there.
“When we look across the supply landscape, it’s interesting, because I think, if I put my consumer hat on, I have the same concerns about the marketplace as I do as a buyer.”
He sees viewers concerned about questions like: “How many of these services am I going to subscribe to? How many do I need? How much is too much when it comes to separating yourself out into these different services?”
And he says the ad-buying community is coming to feel the same way. “It feels like, as an industry, we move towards this idea of we’re bundling a massive amount of content together within a cable subscription. And now we’re chopping it all back up and living in silos.
“I don’t know if it’s best for us as an industry to be separating it out. So I do see a point in time where some of this stuff will start to come together, at least from a measurement standpoint.”
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>That’s why Lisa Valentino is offering technology to support refined audience targeting capability.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Valentino, executive Vice President, Client Solutions & Addressable Enablement, Disney Advertising Sales, explains how how developments announced at last week’s first-ever Disney Platform Tech Showcase, as well as others, can help achieve that aim.
Selling the graph
The corporation is wrapping together all its first-party audience targeting capabilities from the Disney Audience Graph in something called Disney Select, the mechanism to make those criteria buyable.
According to the announcement: “With Disney Select, marketers can select desired audiences from Disney’s extensive library of first-party segments that are designed to meet client needs like buyer behavior, household characteristics and psychographics.”
Disney has spent the last three years building an audience graph, now including Hulu data, with over 1,000 audience identity segments, buyable in an automated fashion.
Lisa Valentino, EVP of client and brand solutions and addressable enablement at @Disney, will chair the inaugural Campaign US Media Awards. #CampaignMediaAwardshttps://t.co/OHoELiPXy4
— Campaign US (@CampaignLiveUS) January 28, 2021
Segmenting scale
As the Disney empire expands, Valentino acknowledges that advertisers don’t necessarily want to reach all parts of the map.
“Reach is important in selling products and services, which is what our clients want to do every day,” she says. “But reach is different today.
“At Hulu, we see 92 million connected viewers every month on the ad-supported side.
It’s less about ‘How do I engage the 92 million?’ It’s ‘How do I understand those audience sets? What types of segmentation can I take advantage of on a platform like Hulu?'”
Incubating new formats
Over the last couple of years, Hulu has innovated with ad formats that deliver whilst shows are paused, whilst viewers are binge-watching, interactive ads, choice-based ads and more.
One of the latest formats is GatewayGo, allowing viewers to take direct action with a brand service on a second screen.
Hulu announces a new offer-focused ad format called GatewayGo https://t.co/ZRscTrlhvw #tech #marketing #technews pic.twitter.com/8DkTnBzkIL
— IceBoxDesigns (@iceboxdesigns) June 23, 2020
Valentino says: “We think about Hulu almost as an incubator for new ad products.”
Toward the future
Hulu leadership is increasingly being folded into that of Disney+ in an effort to address international markets, where Hulu has mostly struggled to gain traction.
But it is as “Star” that Disney is bringing a Hulu-like show bundle to international audiences.
As viewing grows and targeting gets more capable, Valentino wants to be able to show ad buyers proof of effectiveness.
She is delivering planning and measurement through partnerships like with Samba TV partnership, making data available in Nielsen Media Impact and Innovid, plus a Hulu attribution tool that D2C clients use to connect their own CRM to Hulu.
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>Tim Spengler was named General Manager of Advanced TV Solutions and Valerie Bischak as General Manager, Head of Growth. Both report to Jack Bamberger, Chief Commercial Officer.
In an interview with Beet.TV, Bamberger explains the hire and how they fit into Amobee’s core offering of serving the entire ecosystem of buy and sell side of digital, CTV and linear TV.
A key part of the offering is called Amobee’s CTV Allocator which forecasts incremental reach to a linear TV schedule across the ecosystem’s CTV supply space. Launched in last September, Bamberger shares some campaign results.
You are watching “Optimizing a Rapidly Converging TV & Video Marketplace: What’s Next,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Amobee. For more videos, please visit this page.
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