Getting Deep into Sports Data-Driven Advertising Opportunities with Xandr and WarnerMedia

For some, according to consultant Mike Shields, when you think of sports advertising it’s generally, “big brands doing tent pole sponsorships. Sports doesn’t scream data technology and programmatic.” But for others, data-driven Moneyball for teams and athletes has made the jump to data-driven addressable advertising in sports programming. At the recent TV of Tomorrow conference, Shields sat down with Laurie Shackell, Vice President of Sports Advanced Advertising, WarnerMedia, and Brian Cordes, Vice President Head of Strategic Partnerships, Xandr to discuss the use of data in the sports programming arena.

Changes in the Sports Marketplace

Generally speaking, at least for marquee events, the sports advertising business hasn’t changed much in the past few years. Shackell offered that, “most of the clients we talk to in the sports landscape don’t want to give up national GRPs which are very precious,” especially for big events like the SuperBowl, All Star Game or NCAA Tournament. “And we are not suggesting changing that.” She also noted that overall consumption of sports programming has continued to grow across all of the different platforms. So within this rich and growing market, the recent merger of Time Warner with AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Xander, perfectly positioned to capture the full value of sports across platforms and all of the buying mechanisms for both national and local campaigns.  

New Forms of Advertising

Sports programming usage by fans is increasingly fragmenting, while becoming even more engaging, if that is possible. Shields noted that, “Bite sized consumption and social media are such a huge part of it [sports programming] now. I imagine that it is more complicated,” in creating media campaigns. But Shackell sees added opportunity rather than complication. “The Bleacher Report always says that the moment is born on TV but … now we can take those moments whether its online or even onsite at a fan fest,” and add the excitement and engagement of those moments to a measureable campaign.

One-to-one targeting is, “another distribution point,” explained Cordes, where Xandr is able to pinpoint a specific athlete’s fan and match messaging to purchasing behavior via addressable on TV or cross screen addressable programmatic. “So it’s by extending that distribution point across a more amplified sponsorship role,” he added.

Finding the Right Creative

“One of the questions we get in addressable TV all of the time is, ‘okay I get it, I want to use the targeting and I want the efficiency it brings but what content do I use?’ and 95% of what we see is people using traditional TV spots, the same spot they use in national linear and bringing it to addressable,” explained Cordes, to add frequency to those households most likely to convert. “But advertisers will always yearn for better and more relevant content and it was always so expensive to make another 30 second spot. So the idea is to take the content that is already being built and leverage these other distribution points, like addressable TV, along with what they are already purchasing from a sports perspective. It’s where we see a big potential for the future.”

Between the ability to leverage multiple platforms and adaptable creative for both national and local campaigns, today’s sports advertising marketplace is flexible, effective and growing. “We’ve also stumbled upon a new idea,” added Cordes, “around frequency management and impression distribution,” where it is possible to reach all potential populations for a brand via addressable from heavy to very light viewers of TV, overcoming some of the challenges of linear. That, and enabling direct-to-consumer advertisers to enter the TV space, indicates growth potential across all verticals and types of advertisers. 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com