SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico\u2014For local television, the 2018 election cycle was tantamount to an early Christmas present. And although 2020 promises to be even better sales-wise, TV providers have to speed up their efforts to roll out targeted, impression-based advertising without cannibalizing their \u201ccore bread and butter traditional linear inventory,\u201d says Furious Corp. CEO Ashley J. Swartz.<\/p>\n
In this interview, Swartz, a longtime Beet Retreat<\/a> attendee and unofficial dean of the proceedings, sums things up thusly: \u201cWe\u2019re trying to race F1 with a Datsun.\u201d<\/p>\n Furious Corp.<\/a> was founded in 2013 to provide linear TV and video yield optimization. It\u2019s seen recent transactional data from the trafficking systems of operators and local station groups showing anywhere from five to 15X premiums on ad pricing, according to Swartz.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now is an interesting time because although we\u2019re talking about the challenges and the fear, uncertainty and doubt in TV, we\u2019re coming off one of the best political seasons we\u2019ve had,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the good news. The not-so-good news is that it\u2019s typical for clients of Furious to be using \u201csoftware that was released in 1990. They\u2019re running their ad businesses with Excel.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, the desire and need to move things forward is hindered by friction in the workflows of revenue and inventory management, causing revenue leakage. \u201cThe driver of revenue leakage is different depending on the TV product you\u2019re selling, and whether you\u2019re using a Nielsen guarantee for spot or impression-based sale,\u201d Swartz<\/a> explains.<\/p>\n With traditional, spot-based linear, the greatest revenue leakage is driven by pricing variability, implies inefficiency. Bringing uniformity and consistency to the rate card process \u201cis in incredible opportunity to improve revenue\u201d by three to 10% in a 12- to 24-month period, Swartz says.<\/p>\n For impression-based, addressable ads, \u201cIt\u2019s actually about inventory utilization and allocation, and so the business challenge changes. The need to look at the other level of yield, which is inventory management, as a different part of that workflow to focus on in order to ensure that, as you\u2019re introducing new products, you still continue to utilize your assets and inventory as efficiently as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n