Piece by piece. That’s how Lauren Wetzel sees it.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, the North America president for ad-tech company InfoSum, explains how the new privacy imperative is driving brands and media players to delve deeper into data.
“The past handful of years, following really notable security breaches and very public misuse of data and data leakage, consumers just have a heightened awareness of a basic question, which is ‘what are you doing with my data?’,” Wetzel says.
“Privacy has to be at the forefront, just given that wave of consumer sentiment and heightened awareness.”
InfoSum’s software allows companies to connect up their customer data sources, including with those owned by other companies.
But Wetzel says privacy is key, even when enabling companies to share customer data.
“The moment that you actually send that data and you centralise it, not only is the privacy and security of that personal data at risk, but the data owner, whether that’s the brand or the media owner can actually lose control of the data,” she says.
“We at InfoSum empower companies to collaborate across that first party data, but without having to sacrifice that control.”
InfoSum allows those companies to join datasets without actually moving their data.
It is a capability now used by global companies like ITV, Channel 4, eBay, Experian and The Telegraph, all of which are building out their own data-driven consumer ad targeting capabilities and all of which are adapting to a world without rudimentary cookie targeting.
“Brands have been on a journey and shift to become more data centric companies for a while (and) have been investing in CRM or CDPs or DMPs,” says InfoSum’s Wetzel. “We help to enable those brands to collaborate.
She says brands want to better understand their own consumers, so have to make better meaning of scattered internal enterprise data, and some also want to partner up with other companies’ datasets.
Reasons, Wetzel says, could include richer consumer engagement with a brand and more relevant ad experiences driven by better knowing customer profiles.
“When you’re technology, and you’re not a data entity, I think that’s very important so you can be objective and neutral and agnostic to the solutions,” Wetzel adds.
“What we’ve seen is first party data leads to better performance. Activation of first-party data can drive more subscribers, higher awareness. (We’ll see) more performance advertising.”
]]>That was before the pandemic forced broadcasters to lower ad rates.
But those with a glass-half-full outlook see an opportunity – although linear numbers are declining, new opportunities to see, understand and target viewers can nevertheless translate into a greater TV ad effectiveness.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Lauren Wetzel, the SVP, Head of Strategy & Corporate, at AT&T’s Xandr, contemplates a brighter, converged future.
“Consumers just aren’t tuned into the same one live stream at the same exact time,” she acknowledges. “They’re consuming in so many different ways in so many different channels, which creates a tonne of complexities to reach them.
“What that means, in terms of the way that the industry needs to think about it, is unifying, automating, planning, activation, and measurement, and attribution.
“All of those audiences that live across those premium environments, we need to find the technology and the data to really connect and allow you to plan and forecast across those screens.
“That’ll help make up for the loss in scale that you’re seeing as traditional TV continues to decline, and also allowing for the way that marketers are starting to really drive towards specific objectives and specific outcomes.”
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has already up-ended business. In TV, ad rates have plummeted and advertisers are less likely to commit large sums in upfront air-time commitments.
That means the annual “upfronts” ad sales season, when broadcasters preview their upcoming slate of content to ad buyers, looks particularly challenging this year.
But, for Wetzel, wider broadcast and ad technology changes already meant the “upfronts” were evolving.
“The upfronts (will) take a little bit of a beating, especially this year,” she says. “I also think the notion of wanting it at a discounted rate will continue.
“But I think there’s a lot of elements of the upfronts that will continue. The notion of marketers still wanting the reach and scale that linear TV offers will continue as a part of their objective.”
To deliver, Wetzel says Xandr is pursuing a number of partnerships. For example, back in March, AMC Networks, Disney and stablemate WarnerMedia joined Xandr Invest, its TV-buying platform, giving advertises more breadth, 76% of US households.
The broadcast partners said they would make most of their national TV inventory through Xandr Invest, which uses AT&T’s customer data to bosot targeting capabilities.
Xandr also invested in InfoSum, a UK SaaS business that helps facilitate the use of brands’ first-party data in ad targeting.
“With the market trends you the industry being disrupted, I think that everyone needs to come together,” Wetzel says.
]]>The division is focused on facilitating premium video and advanced TV ad sales, and is a combination of a variety of acquisitions and launches. Most recently, Xandr acquired clypd late last year.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Xandr head of strategy and corporate development Lauren Wetzel says that, in 2020, the division wants to more closely serve WarnerMedia, the media division of their mutual owner, AT&T.
“(2019 was) a building year. We fully integrated AppNexus in 2019, we relaunched our Invest platform, we relaunched our Monetize platform and we unveiled a marketplace so that it’s not about just our owned assets, but also bringing in premium publishers.
“In 2020, it’s going to be an acceleration year with that. CTV (connected TV) is going to take off in 2020 even more than it has. What you’ll see from Xandr is a more integrated partnership with WarnerMedia. You’re going to continue to see us unifying our platforms and ensuring that it’s about buying and selling across all channels of premium video … linear television and data-driven linear and addressable TV.
Wetzel is putting the industry on notice to expect a lot of change, especially around TV ad formats. Like Hulu did last year, Xandr just announced a “pause ad”, which shows ad content when a viewer pauses playback of a show.
Wetzel expects innovation around AVOD, ad-supported video-on-demand services, which are seeing new energy after a few years of industry preoccupation with subscription video.
“As CTV continues to explode in 2020, I think the industry is going to really have to establish those standards so it makes it easier for CTV to be a part of the marketing mix,” she adds.
Lauren Wetzel will be speaking at the Beet Retreat in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on February 5 to 7, 2020.
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