Representing 50% of the domestic television impression supply, the OpenAP audience-targeting consortium has reached critical mass and created a uniform currency around advanced advertising, says Viacom\u2019s John Halley. Phase Two will see more publishers joining OpenAP as it works on ease-of-use and other improvements for media buyers.<\/p>\n
In this interview with Beet.TV at the recent WideOrbit<\/a> Connect conference, Viacom\u2019s COO of Ad Sales recaps the progress of OpenAP, which began as an initiative of Fox, Viacom and Turner and offers observations on future growth based on current use by advertisers in several categories. Newer members include NBCUniversal and Univision.<\/p>\n A big impetus behind OpenAP<\/a> was the fact that publishers had their own advanced-advertising products but the way they defined audiences differed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were all using our own fusion methodologies to, say, come up with an in-target segment list for movie enthusiasts. It was defined differently. The response from buyers was \u201cI\u2019m not buying the same thing.\u201d By providing the \u201celement of currency\u201d that had been missing, OpenAP unified audience target definitions, according to Halley.<\/p>\n The platform has a tool that allows advertisers or agencies to define their target segments using \u201ca wide variety of data sets, and then share that segment across multiple publishes who will then guarantee the buy against that common audience definition,\u201d Halley<\/a> says.<\/p>\n \u201cThis allows buyers the opportunity to look at publishers on a relative basis so they can evaluate share and how much they\u2019re willing to pay for advanced segments. It has done a great deal to provide momentum around the volume of investment in advanced advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, these are still the \u201cvery early stages,\u201d says Halley, noting that for some advertisers, advanced buying \u201cis exactly where they should be.\u201d Examples are response-based advertisers and categories like studios, automotive and quick-serve restaurants. One thing they have in common is \u201cthey tend to work a lot with data in the first place. They tend to be predisposed to buy it because they have the capabilities in-house to activate in that fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n Over time, as other kinds of consumer products become more data-centric, \u201cyou\u2019re going to see an increase in the buying against advanced segments. I would also say that this is really prep for an addressable marketplace, where we\u2019re going to be matching advanced audience segments on a one-to-one basis more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n Halley places OpenAP\u2019s combined member footprint at 50% of the domestic television impression supply, \u201cso we do think feel like we\u2019re at a critical mass as it is. But I would expect there to be additional key publishers joining the consortium in the near term. We\u2019re going to be taking on other problems. I would look for other kinds of ease of buying type solutions coming up in the near term.\u201d<\/p>\n