Precision and Performance has been a critical part of A+E Networks’ toolbox since its launch in 2016. Since then it has continued to outpace media industry sales platforms in innovation and personalization. “When we initially came up with this offering it was rooted around the recognition of two things. One - that television is a mass reach vehicle. We needed to find ways to help people lean in and reach a specific audience to make their media impressions more efficient. Two - to help on the back end with performance measurements that prove we were driving real impact to customer engagement after being exposed on our networks. That was the impetus and those core values haven't changed,” she explained.
The toolkit is customizable and targeted with audience based applications that use a variety of datasets and platforms. “Our team is here to provide flexible solutions for our brand partners. What has changed is the quantity of ways in which we can accomplish those same key goals,” she noted. Perhaps the most important aspect of this latest version is the range of options for a brand. “Our biggest marketplace differentiator is that we are flexible. We offer one size / fits one solution. It is an incredibly collaborative process where our main goal is to help our brands and partners accomplish what they are specifically looking for, in whatever way, shape, or form that comes in,” she asserted.
The areas that the toolkit now covers includes, according to Barnes, “audience targeting capabilities and optimizing media proposals that include business outcomes, measurement for all various areas of the funnel all the way from awareness to search to foot traffic to actual sales of products,” and in addition, “we're continuing to offer business outcomes,” that are guaranteed to, “drive a certain amount of lift to whatever that business outcome guarantee is.”
Precision and Performance boasts range of data options that span linear, digital and addressable and activate in both Nielsen and Non Nielsen alternate currencies like VideoAmp. “We are overlaying content and using data to inform where our content is being placed and amplifying partnerships. And we are now fully cross platform, offering across both our linear and digital properties,” she added.
An important factor in the value of Precision and Performance is that the results of a campaign are independently assessed. “We work with very, very trusted third party attribution vendors. We do not grade our own homework. It's something that we feel very passionately about. Every type of result that we have is validated and vetted to make sure that the statistical significance makes sense that the data is accurate,” she explained.
The results are then contextualized with results delivered to clients with insights and actionable next steps. “We're not just sending raw data back, saying, ‘Here you go, you figure it out.’ We are looking into what the marketplace was like, what the economy was like in that quarter, how their creative drove incremental value, which was more effective, which didn't work so well,” she noted. The download helps to illuminate, “how we can work to improve together and help media be more effective in driving the consumer engagement they're looking for.”
Arguably the biggest challenge is overcoming industry uncertainty and the rapid pace of change. “The biggest challenge,” she mused, “is industry adoption and standardization because when there are so many different options or paths or ways to look at data or analyze a media campaign it can be challenging to standardize. That's why A+E Networks is part of the Joint Industry Committee for Alternate Currency Development to ensure that we're approaching these changes in the industry in a uniform way and providing that white glove best in class service to our brand partners.” The key here is to be flexible. “We know that the marketplace is challenging. We know our industry is challenging and viewership is changing. How can we be flexible and offer solutions that gets (the client) what they need and not what we need?”
Looking forward, Barnes intends to, “continue to keep a finger on the pulse. Tools are constantly evolving so it's important to evaluate new partners and look into different solutions such as AI and alternate currencies. How can we make sure that we are moving at the speed and honestly little bit ahead of the speed of where our marketplace is going, so that by the time a brand partner needs something, we're already there, and we have those solutions in place.”
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
Artwork by Charlene Weisler
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