MIAMI \u2013 If you could change just one thing tomorrow that could speed up the advanced-television business, what would that be? Maybe nothing that would have an immediate impact on the way things were done\u2014inertia being what it is\u2014but it\u2019s good to ponder the question anyway.<\/p>\n
This was the approach taken by Ashley J. Swartz, CEO of Furious Corp.<\/a>, which specializes in linear TV and video yield optimization, as she capped off the proceedings at Beet Retreat Miami<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n The final panel of this year\u2019s conference featured Anupam Gupta, Chief Product Officer, 4C Insights<\/a>; Daniel Harrison, Head of TV Solutions for Oracle Data Cloud; and Jakob Nielsen, CEO of GroupM\u2019s Finecast addressable TV business.<\/p>\n Declaring that \u201cTV needs to change,\u201d Gupta pointed out that while so-called enemies like Facebook and Google require advertisers to \u201cdo it their way\u201d behind walled gardens, at least those companies offer application-programming interfaces. Those API\u2019s facilitate valuable things like ad buying, targeting, reporting, measurement, creative testing and creative trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are the API\u2019s for the one trillion impressions\u201d that comprise traditional TV?, Gupta asked.<\/p>\n Harrison said the Retreat was a great place for him to gain a better understanding of the financial and technical complexities of advanced TV. His reflections:<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be able to adjust and redirect to achieve your goals. Coming from an Oracle Data Cloud<\/a> perspective, I\u2019m a bit neutral to all of this because regardless, we look at data as the fuel for innovation and it\u2019s how do we enable this data in every and any place that a client wants this to be to achieve some goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Nielsen warned that progress will be curtailed if agencies and tech suppliers make things too complicated for marketers. Said he: \u201cOne thing I\u2019ve seen with advertisers is they are super excited about what we\u2019re talking about. They\u2019re seeing benefits of household targeting, using their own first-party data, to be able to do creative rotation in a different way, near-time optimization. That\u2019s a journey that we\u2019re on. We have to remember to take them on that journey, make it simple, give them what they need but don\u2019t give people too much.\u201d<\/p>\n Swartz suggested that it\u2019s \u201chuman problems, not technology problems, that are holding us back.\u201d This led to a discussion about current business models and methods that, while familiar and comfortable, won\u2019t move things ahead at the desired speed.<\/p>\n Gupta described attending meetings with agencies and marketers in which everyone understands the importance of more data-driven TV audience buying. When he asks how they are currently executing it, responses typically include Microsoft Excel. \u201cThen we say okay how are you processing large-scale datasets? \u2018Well we don\u2019t have the engineers to take second-by second-data from ten-plus million devices,\u2019\u201d Gupta related. \u201cThe point is, you\u2019ve got business issues around talent, around the software not being there, around the horsepower not being there. Those are the issues holding you back. It\u2019s not the desire to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Harrison: \u201cInnovation doesn\u2019t happen because you desire it. It\u2019s because you must do it. You really don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Nielsen said there are too many tech solutions and there should be more use of fewer of them going forward. He offered these examples:<\/p>\n