MIAMI \u2013 Viewers are way ahead of the television and video ecosystem, which remains siloed in some quarters. But there\u2019s an inevitable shift happening that will culminate in both a unified currency and inventory pool.<\/p>\n
With over-the-top and set-top box viewing at about 50%, the big TV screen still accounts for four out of five hours daily. But shifting viewing habits pose challenges for buyers and marketers, according to Herve Brunet, GM, FreeWheel<\/a> Markets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still plan in a very siloed fashion,\u201d Brunet says in this interview at the recent Beet Retreat Miami 2017<\/a>. \u201cWe have planning processes for TV and planning processes for digital video.\u201d<\/p>\n A single inventory pool would make things a lot easier.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can do things like de-duplicated reach, you can do frequency capping across linear TV and digital devices,\u201d Brunet says.<\/p>\n A typical example would be someone watching a program on linear TV who can then be targeted with ads on an OTT device, which is connected to the same TV set.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we actually know that we\u2019ve been targeting you twice. One time in a linear fashion and one time in an OTT fashion. So that\u2019s a real value for the marketer.\u201d<\/p>\n On the matter of currencies, transacting on a mix of gross rating points and impressions holds back progress in unifying inventory pools.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the TV world evolves more toward like digital decisioning, it\u2019s going to evolve into an impression-based world. It\u2019s going to be easier to unify the currency towards probably an impression-based currency or unit-based currency,\u201d Brunet adds.<\/p>\n