“There is so much data out there and there are so many ways
that brands can use data,” stated Vanessa Longworth. She should know. She is the
Data Partnerships Manager at Dish
Media. Longworth started her career at Comcast before moving to Dish in the
addressable space and now concentrates her time on data as part of the Data and
Analytics Sales team.
The Data Ecosystem
The burning
questions regarding the use of data in the sales effort is what data is
commonly used and how it is used. But there is no easy answer. It depends on
what data is accessible and which is relevant. “Brands can use their own first
party data sometimes even supplementing that with third party,” she explained. And
there are demographic datasets that just rely on third party data because it is
“difficult to get first party data to a safe haven.” Some are even using second
party data, she added, “like our viewership data to be able to target
households to their programming.”
Brands are
being very strategic in using data to target, noted Longworth. “Some use the
data to conquest and go after their competitors. They may try to target
customers who have lapsed purchasing their own brand or they target current
customers in hopes of them spending more or introduce new products.”
The Data Evolution
Data has
evolved since Longworth first started in the industry. She noted that new data
sets include mobile location data, but there is also much more availability of
data in general. “It went from being a handful of data companies to being more
than I can count!” Data has become a vital aspect of the advertising ecosystem
partly because of the advancement of technology. “There are a lot of data
points that are collected through technology like the internet, mobile phones
and many other touchpoints – more than the average person would realize,” she
stated.
The data-driven business first started in the digital
marketplace. TV needed to accelerate towards the fuller use of all available
data to compete and grow. “What was needed was more advanced technology,” she
noted, and satellite companies like Dish, for example, moved aggressively.
According to Longworth, “We were the first ones in the addressable space.”
In terms of TV targeting optimization, some clients use
website traffic from the addressable ad to indicate a call-to-action. “They
place a pixel on their website and they are then able to target those people
who visit the website addressably on TV, doing that on a weekly or monthly
cadence,” she explained.
With all of
the data available and the many options to incorporate data into a campaign,
marketers can easily be confused or they may find that their current consumer
target is incorrect or evolved. “I think that because it is so readily
available and there is so much of it that sometimes they don’t know what to do
or where to start. Is there a perfect data set?” she queried, “Probably not. It
depends on the KPIs.” She added, “We’ve been doing this for so long that we
know the best practices for verticals.”
The Data Future
With the legislative push towards greater privacy
protection, the future of data driven sales might be open to question. But
Longworth is optimistic. “Data has existed and has been used for advertising
for a long time,“ she noted. “These laws are not meant to hinder addressable TV
or advanced advertising. It’s just meant to give people the right to their own
data, where their data is, what types of data points companies have on them.”
To that end, looking forward over the next three years, “I
see data being used more and more as the years go by because as there are more
players in the space, it’s making the addressable footprint more robust and
that should help advertisers spend more money in that space,” she explained. Longworth
sees advertisers continuing to use data. “It helps inform them of the right way
to target and the best way to optimize and measure their campaign,” she
concluded.
This article first appeared on www.MediaVillage.com
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