Getting a Grip on AI and Metadata Madness at the MESA Smart Content Summit

Data and its think/speak has become so ubiquitous in the industry now that it's reference in any context - sales, content creation, marketing and branding - is not only commonplace but also becoming de rigeur. But as with anything that permeates the ecosystem, there is a time for it to be standardized with a common language, protocol and usage pattern. All of that is beginning to gel as evidenced by the panels at the third annual Media and Entertainment Day conference held at the Microsoft center in NYC. 

Monetization

Moviepass, where subscribers pay $10 a month to be able to see one movie a day for the month has proven to be extremely popular. But if Moviepass based their revenue success strictly on subscribership fees, they would fall short. Instead, Ted Farnsworth, chairman and CEO, Helios and Matheson analytics, seeks to turn Moviepass's data into the main revenue stream. While not selling their data to clients, Moviepass instead sells insights from their data to interested parties such as film producers. Moviepass also uses their data for recommendation engines that “push people to the theatrical experience,” and assist the company in acquisitions and “develop films based on the data we have.” Farnsworth explained that data also helps detect fraud including, “sharing passwords, subscribers selling their tickets or giving their tickets away or detecting unfair trade by theaters.” According to Farnsworth, Moviepass is helping to bolster attendance especially at smaller theaters, encouraging Millennials to go out to the movies and showcasing more independent films that may not have large marketing budgets. 

Content Tracking

There is a vast amount of metadata that is currently available and new sources are increasing every day. The challenge is not only capturing all of this data but also tracking it within a company and across companies in the industry. Various forms of data labeling, such as being able to distinguish specific ads and specific programming, ascertain which regions of the country and the world and even what subset of language (such as Latin American Spanish or Castilian Spanish)  is being spoken in the content must all be identified and properly labeled in an agreed industry standard. Efforts by companies such as HBO and organizations such as CIMM have begun the heavy lifting work in content labeling for the industry. “The challenge to these IDs is having people register and embed throughout their practice,” stated Jane Clarke, CEO and Managing Director, CIMM. However, according to Brian Hughes, Senior Vice President, Audience Intelligence and Strategy, MAGNA, agency clients are already using Ad-ID. “On the ad side we are generating use. In terms of how we sell it though, we say this is how we can tell where an ad goes, how it performs and what the results are,” he noted.

Storytelling

“From inception, data can ride along with the piece of content and enrich that piece of content,” noted Guy Findley, Executive Director, MESA. From a content perspective, there is so much data being created and collected that it can be challenging to present it in a form that makes it flexible to use and manipulate. Matt Turner, Chief Technology Officer, Media and Manufacturing, Mark Logic, spoke about smart content and the digital files created from content inception to pre-production, post production, distribution -both primary and secondary - to archiving and ultimately into future infinite uses. But the “traditional data approach makes looking at metadata difficult today,” noted Turner because it creates data silos.  He advocated a new approach using flexible schemas that link together in an operational data hub for media. “ This makes the data available across all parts of the business and interacts with all systems,” he explained. An example of this is NBCU’s Saturday Night Live which can now search for concepts using the data hub and “Disney’s creative genome project that collects data from all around the show.”

Conclusion

As Daniel Goss, Vice President of Innovation and Experience, LiveTiles, stated, “Data and analytics are embedded with everything you do.” From the media industry’s viewpoint, data is touching all aspects of the business from creative content creation to financial impact of our business decisions. Locking into industry standards for labeling, data framework and measurement will enable us to derive the maximum benefit of this growing and powerful resource.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com