Future of TV Advertising Panel

Where is the future of TV advertising in this ever fragmenting media environment? An attempt was made to shed some light on this subject by Rovi who sponsored a panel last week that was fittingly called “The Future of TV Advertising”.

The panel, moderated by Bill Niemeyer of TDG, included Jeff Siegel of Rovi, Lori Schwartz of McCann and Matthew Pagen of IAG discussed Rovi’s Smart TV initiative, the pace of change, social media, extended screen and bundling vs a la carte. But in my opinion, their discussion of the role of data was the most interesting.

The creation of metrics and measurement in the STB data space continues to be a land rush with competitors racing to get their brand of customizable (and standardize-able) analytics to market. And equally, the demand from the marketplace for data insights and analytics has never been so strong. Part of this demand is due to ever increasing cross platform opportunities and the plethora of data points resulting from the potential combination of interactive platforms and set top boxes.

Lori Schwartz, Chief Technology Catalyst at McCann Worldgroup, said it best, “The data piece is pivotal. Data is the new black. Everyone wants the data and everybody wants the data to touch everything. They want it to not only measure the traditional interactive side of things; they also want it to address engagement.” She also admitted that because the landscape is in constant change, there is a pressing need to stay ahead of the curve, learning about new cutting edge technologies even if they are destined to disappear by the next year.

But which metrics are most meaningful? Do they need to be standardized to the current currency or does the evolving marketplace demand new metrics for the new times? Much of the addressable advertising measurement today is still fairly custom – whether it is data matching to proprietary segmentations or to known consumer measurement industry data panels for that particular advertiser, product or category. But slowly, some of these previously custom metrics are becoming part of a new standard nomenclature like TRA’s Heavy Swing Purchasers and Purchaser Rating Points which CRO Bill Harvey says that many of their clients have adopted.

Rovi’s contribution to the discussion involves measuring Smart TV usage and behavior through a 100k STB panel that combines ISP data with TV viewing. This initiative involves a partnership with Nielsen’s IAG service via a panel. This is one possible approach providing that it is a representative sample of the TV Universe. Results of their study will be available at the end of the summer. In the meantime there are two short videos from the panel which can be viewed below:


Here is a short excerpt from the panel. This is a discussion on Rovi's initiative and some insights into the media landscape. The video is 5:49 minutes long:





Jeff Siegel of Rovi sales talks about Rovi's metrics in their Smart TV initiative. This video is 1:14 minutes long:

Q&A Interview with Bill Harvey - TRA

Bill Harvey, Co-Founder, Vice Chairman and CRO of TRA has helped that company create a new type of buying measurement using STB data and custom databases. Bill has had an illustrious career in some of the biggest ad agencies in the industry and has written extensively about advertising, privacy and research policy. In this interview, Bill talks about his background, the ad agency world and TRA and how it uses Set Top Box data. TRA has recently published a sector evaluation on Set Top Box data companies.


The five videos that comprise Bill Harvey’s full interview are as follows:

Subject                                    Length (in minutes)
Background                            (6 :51)
Agencies                                 (4:20)
TRA                                       (6:19)
Set Top-Box Data, Privacy     (8:40)
Predictions, Social Media        (7:56)


In this video Charlene Weisler interviews TRA co-founder and CRO Bill Harvey about his background which spand an impressive agency career and TRA. This video is 6:51 minutes long:




Charlene Weisler interviews Bill Harvey who talks about Ad Agencies past and present. How can they improve their business model? This video is 4:20 minutes long:




Bill Harvey talks to Charlene Weisler about TRA - its formation, history, business model and improtant stats in this 6:20 minute long interview video:




Charlene Weisler interviews TRA's co-founder Bill Harvey about STB Data and Privacy issues. Bill discusses some of his early efforts at establishing privacy guidelines in this 8:40 minute video:




Charlene Weisler interviews Bill Harvey of TRA who offers some fascinating predictions for the next few years as well as his opinions on Social Media. This video is 7:56 minutes long:

Q&A Interview with Jane Clarke - CIMM

This week the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) announced the results of a feasibility study for the Trackable Asset Cross-Platform Identification (TAXI) project. This study, in partnership with the ANA, 4A’s and the IAB is a first step in implementing open and interoperable industry standard codes for content and ads across all content. I sat down with CIMM’s Managing Director, Jane Clarke to talk about TAXI and other CIMM initiatives.


CIMM could not have chosen a better Managing Director than Jane Clarke whose extensive and deep experience in Cross Platform and Set Top Box data contribute to her stellar reputation in the media industry. CIMM has two major initiatives – to facilitate the understanding of STB data and help facilitate Cross Platform measurement.

In this video interview, conducted a few days before the release of the TAXI findings, Jane discusses not only the specifications and back story of TAXI but also CIMM’s Cross Platform industry position, STB data and privacy. She also shares some predictions for the media landscape over the next few years.

The five videos that comprise the full interview are as follows:

Subject                               Length (in minutes)
Background                          (2:13)
CIMM and Cross Platform   (5:35)
TAXI                                   (12:29)
Set Top-Box Data                (8:37)
Privacy and Predictions         (7:54)


Charlene Weisler interviews Jane Clarke, Managing Director of CIMM who discusses her background in cable and cross platform: in this 2:13 minute video clip:





Charlene Weisler interviews Jane Clarke who talks about CIMM and its cross platform initiatives in this 5:35 minute video clip:





Charlene Weisler interviews Jane Clarke who discusses TAXI, CIMM's latest initiative. This informative video is 12:29 minutes long:



Jane Clarke talks about CIMM's work in Set Top Box data including the Lexicon and Set Top Box Data Landscape whitepaper in this 8:37 minute video:




In this final video, Jane Clarke discusses the issue of Privacy and well as offers some insights inot the future media landscape. This concluding video is 7:54 minutes long: