LAS VEGAS\u2014Hardware is still a big topic of conversation at CES, but Mindshare\u2019s Adam Gerhart would rather talk about \u201cthe customization and utilization of televisions and devices\u201d and the resulting addressability for advertisers.<\/p>\n
In this interview with Beet.TV, U.S. CEO Gerhart discusses the \u201cperfect balance\u201d between TV\u2019s scale and addressability along with the challenge that accompanies the need for increasing amounts of consumer data for targeting purposes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest things that we\u2019re starting to see is the unbundling of services,\u201d says Gerhart, citing the Consumer Technology Association\u2019s projection<\/a> of a 27% increase in streaming revenue in 2019. \u201cThat\u2019s huge and it has massive implications when you think about the control that it gives to consumers in terms of building their own packages with their own channels, their own networks.\u201d<\/p>\n Byproducts of this customization can be positive or negative. Among the former is greater fragmentation, while the latter includes \u201cunderstanding more about who those consumers are through the data that we have, from the suppliers providers and carriers that are actually starting to create some of those bundles,\u201d Gerhart<\/a> says.<\/p>\n He sees opportunity in the \u201cperfect balance between the scale that TV can afford and actually the addressability that it creates. I don\u2019t think we have many clients that are on one extreme or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n Mindshare has a lot of small \u201cchallenger brands\u201d that use addressable TV and new technologies to precisely target people who may be in market for a particular product or service. Then there are clients that need traditional scale and eyeballs, reach and impressions.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s the combination of those two and understanding where and how they intersect, that\u2019s the art and science of what we do,\u201d Gerhart says.<\/p>\n He believes there\u2019s a paradox now in that \u201ceverybody wants to be as addressable and precise as possible. But in order to do that it means that we need more data and more information from consumers from providers, third party, first party, you name it. That\u2019s the tension that we\u2019re constantly faced with.\u201d<\/p>\n