“Certainly the more partners that join OpenAP the more it allows us to really have that standardization across a greater amount of networks within the portfolio,” Bosetti says in this video interview with Beet.TV taped last week at the Cadent & one2one Media UpFront event.
When Fox, Viacom and Turner announced OpenAP in March of 2017, Bosetti says Initiative was excited by the opportunity “because one of the challenges that we’ve had with audience buying is the limitations to optimize within different walled gardens versus trying to optimize across the entire cable or broadcast landscape.”
On April 19, NBCU disclosed that it has decided not only to participate in OpenAP but will bring its in-house Audience Studio’s data capabilities to boost the platform by integrating them into OpenAP’s standardized data sets, as ADWEEK reports.
“With NBCUniversal aligning with the consortium, we are all accelerating the industry’s efforts in providing more premium scale to drive greater adoption of advanced audience targeting, while laying the groundwork for future innovation.” the sales chiefs at Fox, Viacom and Turner said in a joint statement.
Bosetti sees advanced audience targeting as a complement to the traditional way of buying primetime shows and daypart mixes, something that isn’t about to change.
“But layering on an audience-based approach allows us to extend that reach across other channels or other platforms that we not be reaching them through those more traditional, fixed-TV buys,” she explains.
OpenAP also offers transparency into buys instead of a “black box” approach to reaching audiences. This gives advertisers increasing confidence to continue investing in advanced TV targeting.
“Clients more and more obviously want to make sure that every dollar that they’re putting their investments into places that are driving the most effectiveness to drive their business,” Bosetti says.
In an interview with Beet.TV one year ago this month, NBCU’s EVP of Business Operations & Strategy, Krishan Bhatia, expressed support for OpenAP while underscoring his company’s efforts to help advertisers target audiences beyond traditional Nielsen demographics.
Bhatia said NBCU was “generally supportive of any efforts that help the TV ecosystem go above and beyond the traditional age/gender based way of measuring and transacting on audiences, including this one,” a reference to OpenAP.
This video was produced at the Cadent & one2one Media UpFront 2018 industry summit. You can find more videos from the series here. The sponsors for this series are Cadent and one2one Media.
]]>But what do brands get out of the upfronts? One woman who guides advertisers through their upfront buying strategy says there are both pros and cons involved in their approach.
“There is a myriad of factors that we consider when we are trying to guide clients in terms of whether or not to be in the upfront marketplace,” says Maureen Bosetti, chief investment officer at IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative.
Amongst the variables involved in the strategy:
And Bosetti says the whole season can be advantageous on at least one of those factors: “The upfront is great to make sure you can buy large amounts of television at scale … At the most efficient pricing.”
But, she acknowledges, spending committed early can limit a brand’s ability to respond later in the fall.
“Disadvantages to being in the upfront could include things like less flexibility, you are committed to the dollars, you may not be able to have funds left for more opportunistic things that come along throughout the year,” she adds.
How will networks fare during this year’s upfronts? Wall Street analysts’ forecasts are split.
“(Jefferies’ John) Janedis sees a 2% decline in the upfront dollars spent on TV to $18.2 billion, with broadcasters down 3% and cable down 1%,” reports Deadline.
But BMO Capital Markets’ Daniel Salmon expects new data-driven targeting offers brought by networks to bring growth, Deadline reports. “Does this sound like a dying marketplace to you?” he asks. “No, us either.”
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.
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