Whether it’s Twitter and ESPN or Disney and Tastemade, “To me, that was very encouraging seeing all these partnerships form and bringing premium video into a more expanded space,” Francois Lee says in this interview with Beet.TV.

Among the deluge of announcements at the NewFronts, Disney revealed that the launch of the Disney Eats brand, partnering with online foodie network Tastemade to develop original content, as Deadline reports.

As someone who works primarily in the television space, the EVP of Video Investment at media agency Assembly is always on the lookout for “places where we can find premium TV-like video in a brand-safe environment with scale.”

Besides acknowledging the nexus of digital and traditional TV, Lee comes away from the NewFronts presentations impressed by the increasing number of publishers launching their own over-the-top channels. “It’s definitely table stakes now,” he says.

While content was front and center at the NewFronts, performance metrics or guarantees were less so. “I think there’s an expectation that if you’re in digital video you’ll be able to provide digital video like metrics, which is not always the case of course.”

Lee is encouraged by better TV-targeting options from the likes of OpenAP, calling it a “healthy trend.” While measurement still needs to advance, “from an attribution model standpoint there’s a lot more we know about what networks what dayparts what programs are driving ROI.”

The missing piece is incremental improvement on ROI on the back end of campaigns.

“We need the networks to say, ‘if you’re going to create this data-led approach then you need to guarantee me ROI on the back end,’” for example guaranteeing performance on age/sex demos plus one of an advertiser’s own targets. “We want an actual ROI on the back end, which I think would really put skin in the game for the networks,” Lee adds.

“We’re definitely seeing improvements from last year to this year. We’re not quite there yet, but I think we’ve made quite a lot of progress in a year.”

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.

When media agency Assembly talks with its clients, “These are all areas we feel are important as part of the Upfront conversation and the rest of the year,” says EVP and Investment Director Francois Lee.

Two years ago, a conversation with a TV network about a client like Expedia would involve how to target frequent travelers but end up with the network agreeing to guarantee delivery on adults 25-54. “For us, that’s essentially not saying much because we can do the same thing, to be honest,” Lee says in this interview with Beet.TV.

“But now the conversation is the network saying ‘all right we will guarantee you on that frequent traveler,’” he adds. “So that is changing the transaction model. That’s something we’re excited about.”

Lee needs to see two specific components to make audience targeting viable: how close to business outcomes sellers can guarantee delivery, and whether the seller can generate incremental value to what Assembly is getting.

“Keep in mind that as the networks get more sophisticated, so do agencies,” he says. “We have a pretty good idea of how media is performing for us.”

Given the long-term erosion of linear TV ratings, the issue of where to shift money leads to a multitude of options, including authenticated apps, paid apps, standalone apps and virtual MVPD’s like YouTube TV. It’s important to assess a client’s existing OTT exposure “because even when you buy Hulu, 70 percent of your impressions is in connected TV environments,” Lee says.

Asked to rate cross-screen audience measurement on a scale of one to 10, he says perhaps four or five.

“Seeing some of the test results from what Nielsen is doing, especially around digital content ratings, we’re not seeing enough consistency to make it scalable yet,” says Lee. “But we’re encouraged that Nielsen is approaching that direction and hopefully we’ll see further results in coming months.”

This segment is part of a series leading up to the 2017 TV Upfront. It is presented by FreeWheel. To find more videos from the series, please visit this page.

When MDC launched Assembly three years ago, it combined the prowess of TargetCast, RJ Palmer and Doner Media under one roof. Lee joined in 2015 from MediaVest, where he had spent 16 years and seen enough silos.

“We had a lot of leeway to build what we need in the marketplace versus inheriting what’s already there,” Lee, who is EVP of Investment at Assembly, says in this interview at the 2017 Beet.TV Executive Retreat. “Having everything under one roof helps us build a pipeline that goes through the entire company in sharing, accessing and analyzing the data.”

Lee’s background is in traditional TV video landscape, where there was far less data to inform decision making. “We have more information than before in seeing what networks, what dayparts, what spots are working harder for us,” he says. “I’m excited about having more data available to me in the way I activate.”

Having all teams under one roof is another plus. “I sit very close with the analytics team to see what’s working, what’s not working. Having everything under one roof helps us build a pipeline that goes through the entire company in sharing, accessing and analyzing the data.”

In addition to having data and analytics at the company’s core, Assembly takes a different tack when it comes to media buying practices that have raised eyebrows in the client community.

“We also strongly believe in building everything around a very transparent model,” Lee says.

This video is part of a series produced at the Beet.TV Executive Retreat in Vieques. The event and series is presented by Videology and 605. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.