Using Advanced Technologies in Advanced Television. Interview with dataxu’s Sandro Catanzaro

There is a lot of talk about the introduction of AI and machine learning (ML) to better understand human behavior. Now, as these protocols move into the media industry, we are finding more companies employing AI and ML to better target consumers over time. 

Sandro Catanzaro, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at dataxu describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. He was one of the co-inventers for dataxu’s real-time optimization algorithm, based on research he did at MIT. Here is an overview of his company, the world of advanced and addressable television and the data work being done in the industry.

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of advanced TV? Is it the same as addressable?

Sandro Catanzaro: Advanced TV is TV advertising that is purchased on an impression basis using advanced audience data and software automation, creating additional value for both the buy and sell sides of the transaction. Addressable TV is a form of advanced TV where households are targeted on a one-to-one basis via cable and satellite set-top boxes, Smart TVs and OTT devices, but not all advanced TV is necessarily addressable. Other forms of advanced TV may be based solely on automating the purchase process, but still displaying ads on a one-to-many broadcast basis.

Charlene Weisler: What are the challenges in advanced TV?

Sandro Catanzaro: One of the primary challenges in advanced TV right now is the ability to target and provide attribution for OTT campaigns. This form of TV is accessed by the viewer via internet enabled televisions and streamed either live or on-demand. The connected nature of OTT makes it very similar to digital video, but as these ads run on actual TV screens and not traditional digital devices (PCs and mobile phones), the typical digital markers (cookies and mobile IDs) are not available for identification, making advanced targeting difficult.

Charlene Weisler: How can they be overcome?

Sandro Catanzaro: This issue can be overcome through new forms of identity management made possible by cross-device graph technology. A device graph is the unification of several otherwise separate devices, such as a laptop, mobile phone, tablet and smart TV under one unique household. In the real world, these devices don’t exist in a vacuum; they are linked through ownership and usage and can be used to understand the full context of a person’s digital footprint. By including smart TVs and OTT devices in a device graph, marketers are able to leverage advanced audience data, built using legacy digital IDs, to enable addressable targeting on televisions, even though these legacy IDs are not present.

Charlene Weisler: What metrics do you use?

Sandro Catanzaro: Advanced TV is typically purchased on an impression basis as opposed to ratings, but it is possible to provide traditional TV metrics such as GRP. However, we find that marketing professionals are also frequently leveraging more detailed metrics to prove success, such as lift studies which compare conversion rates of exposed populations versus control groups. This is made possible through addressable forms of advanced TV and device graph technology, where specific viewers are directly targeted and others are intentionally excluded, in order to compare their actions across all devices, and in the real world, after having viewed the ad.

Charlene Weisler: What is dataxu?

Sandro Catanzaro: dataxu is a software company that helps marketing and media professionals use data to improve their advertising using AI to optimize ROI on marketing investments. dataxu ingests first-party data (e.g., customer purchase information), matches it up with many other kinds of data across devices and identifiers and creates a customer machine learning classifier for each campaign that invests more budget into what’s driving acquisition and less into what isn’t. We offer three products: TouchPoint™, our demand side platform (DSP); OneView™, our identity and data management platform; and ClearSight™, our advanced analytics and data visualization product.

Charlene Weisler: Where does it reside in the ecosystem? Who are your competitors?

Sandro Catanzaro: Sandro Catanzaro: Some of our products, such as TouchPoint™, compete with other DSPs, including The Trade Desk or MediaMath, but our analytics, cross-device identity management and advanced TV capabilities stand alone.

Charlene Weisler: How will GDPR impact your side of the business?

Sandro Catanzaro: dataxu has always placed the highest value on transparency, quality and privacy. We have had a dedicated task force for GDPR since it was announced. We expect GDPR to have an impact on the entire industry, not just dataxu; however, we know we are prepared and well-positioned to face the challenges coming. We were fully prepared when GDPR came into effect; we are active in industry-wide schemes (such as the IAB Technical Consent Program), are a registered vendor with the IAB Europe and are members of self-regulatory organizations [e.g., Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) and European Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA)] to make sure our customers are best placed for success under the new rules.

Charlene Weisler: What does the future of TV buying look like 3-5 years from now?

Sandro Catanzaro: In the next three to five years, we expect more and more people to follow the growing trend of taking their viewership to connected devices, not only leading to more innovation surrounding those devices, but creating a larger pool of inventory for advertising to be served. We expect that in this time period all major TV programmers will have made their content available via connected devices and most will be providing marketers access to this advertising via programmatic channels. The largest portion of TV buying will still operate through legacy methods, such as upfronts, but advanced TV will soon constitute a much larger piece of that pie in the near future.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com