Donna
Speciale, President of Turner Ad Sales, launched the opening keynote at the
Addressable advertising conference this week with an overview of Turners
approach to the new data-driven, addressable new age of television and cross
platform. How does a large corporation
such as Turner maximize not only all of the content across networks but also
harness the power of all of the devices where their content also resides? And how can it be measured? It is not a
simple task.
Turner’s strategy was, according to Speciale, “to come
together and hyper focus on advertising. We realized that there were challenges
so we took time out to look under our hood to see what wasn't working and
why.” She realized that “we needed to go
back to the fundamentals and do a better job of the consumer experience. Our
brand should be entertaining audiences across devices.” Once having reviewed
the consumer experience in its entirety as a company, they were then able to
reimagine the advertising that accompanied their content. The goal was to
“create compelling content that drives product off the shelf. We wanted to make
advertising great again,” she added.
But it was not only the outer world, consumer driven aspect
of the business that needed attention. Speciale also noted that “We needed to build
the right teams and become more client-facing. So we launched new data and
content teams.”
Turner’s strategy was to focus on four major areas and began
to break down the company silos that separated them:
Ø
Make the
right data count.
Audience Targeting – “There are all types
of data that are now available that we didn't have ten years ago,” stated
Speciale who added this caveat, “But having data is not the same as being data
driven. You need the right data to understand your audience.”
Ø
Cut down
on the ad clutter.
The Ad environment – For a seamless
experience, the ad environment must be scalable across all media companies.
“You can get the right ad but how much impact does it really have if the ad environment
is not conducive?” Speciale stated. “There is too much advertising and we need
to go beyond the thirty second spot,” she added, “So we had to make a change. We
launched limited ad load format which was not an easy feat. Needed better
balance between content and advertising and it has begun to pay off with higher
brand recall and engagement.”
Ø
Get
creative with all of the content
Content creation – “We already replaced
five hours of ads with original content across the schedule so now one ad can take
up the entire commercial pod of the show,” Speciale asserted. “We can now take
content and cut it up into snackable units across platforms. Our data allows us to inform for better campaigns
and make a better experience for fans. Experience is everything. We are just
scratching the surface as to how data can help us understand the environment,”
she concluded.
Ø
Track the
targeted audience across platforms
Content optimization - “Great content does
not live in one place,” Speciale noted. “It demands to be followed. So we
introduced an audience map which takes targeting a step further.” To do this
she took TV and digital and linked them according to the same restraints. And
she noted that these efforts have begun to show positive results. She revealed
that, “We have seen increased ROI on a single schedule by over $4million.
Advertisers now feel comfortable. Scaling this product is top priority in the
next four years.”
But Turner cannot do it alone within its walled garden solution. Change has to come from the industry as a whole. Speciale concluded that, “Many other networks have followed with similar advancements. We all need to be behind this effort and encourage understanding across the Industry. We need to break down the walls and learn how to work together.”
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