Challenges and Opportunities in Advanced Television

To many in the industry, advanced advertising holds the promise of optimizing inventory across all dayparts and platforms by targeting consumers no matter where they are and when they are consuming content. 

The benefits to consumers are that ad messaging is relevant and contextual, therefore meaningful and helpful. In a perfect world, the meeting of business commerce at all points of contact in the funnel will be both seamless and measureable.

But there are still a few bumps in the road for Advanced advertising that need to be addressed before it can fulfill its full national potential. A recent panel at the Advanced Advertising Summit discussed how the industry can put it all together.

Growth But Challenges
The Advanced advertising market is “seeing growth,” stated Chris Pizzurro, VP Global Sales, Canoe. Still, Jonathan Steuer, Chief Research Officer, Omnicom Media Group, listed three main challenges. “The biggest problem is awareness, then ease of use and then measurement,” he explained. “We need to focus on education and make the big shift from linear TV to thinking about TV in the digital space.” It is important to explain to advertisers why they should invest in advanced advertising, proving to them that it is worth the investment. Steuer explained that the current compensation models are based on grps costs and delivery targets and, as an industry, we should be looking at deliverables in parallel with advanced results. He predicted that, “It would be more efficient and we will have money left over to retarget.”

Challenges But Opportunities
While still essentially local, Advanced is also global. Denise Colella, SVP Advanced Advertising Products and Strategy, NBCU, noted that Sky TV has access to over 50 million global households enabling, “Global strategies that need to be implemented locally.” Measurement predicated on granular data points that are collected passively, and with privacy compliance, is improving. Jodie McAfee, SVP Sales and Marketing, Inscape, noted that his company, “generates TV viewing data on 10.5 million active TVs that must be connected to internet and opt-in to privacy.” Since all TVs sold today are connected TVs, the future will be more and more on the IP and thus facilitate the collection of all relevant consumption data. Inscape, according to McAfee, has a match key to the TV in the home anchored to the multi-touch devices, enabling better collection of usable data.

All panelists agreed that it is vital to think about the experience of the end users. Ease of use for advertisers is paramount, concluded, Colella. “We believe in an ad supported model that is hassle free,” she explained, “People are less tolerant of tech issues.”

This article first appeared in Cynopsis.

The Future is Bright for eSports, According to the EAB

eSports competitive global gaming  is currently a multi-billion dollar industry with, as CNN reported, the potential to turn “casual gamers into serious stars who can sometimes rake in seven-figure earnings and massive brand endorsements.” The distribution channels of streaming services and live events have made it the next frontier for marketers who see it as an opportunity to advertise in fresh inventory and reach Millennial males. 

Notably, while not all games are eSports, all eSports are games and their burgeoning popularity is quickly making them a major player in the overall sports market.

The EAB (eSports Advertising Bureau) commissioned Magid to analyze the profile and proclivities of the eSports fan based on fusing and averaging the data of EAB members’ audience studies.

It was recently presented at the Secret Society meeting. Chris Pizzurro, Head of Sales and Marketing, Canoe Ventures who is on the EAB Advisory Board, presented the findings:

• A majority (54%) of all U.S. consumers have heard of eSports which translates into 48 million people.
• The majority of eSports fans are age 18-34 (58%), while 14% are 13-17 and 28% are 35+.
• eSports fans skew male (71%), have a household income of $75k+ (49%), a college degree (60%) and are married (65%).
• Compared to sports fans in general, eSports fans are heavier users of media.

For Pizzurro, one of the challenges with eSports measurement is that there is, “no central measurement. If a brand does a sponsorship deal with a media company and it includes broadcast, digital, social and arena, the measurement will come from each platform. So the media company, agency, or brands needs to put it all together.”

But the opportunities for advertisers, according to Pizzurro, are vast, from sponsoring a league or players to placements on distribution platforms. When asked, “Where do you see eSports in the media ecosystem three years from now?” he is optimistic, “It will be much more mature,” he stated,

“We have seen just in the last year much more business discipline from major media companies entering the space. We will see an increase in media spending from advertisers as the business execution lead time moves from months to weeks.”

This article was first published in Cynopsis.

Using Blockchain to Disrupt Media

Just when you thought the media landscape was quieting down, a new non-profit research and development foundation called the AdLedger Consortium has been created to further disrupt the buy/sell model, this time by using blockchain. This consortium is charged with implementing global technical standards, protocols and solutions for digital media and blockchain. 

The group’s founding members consist of a range of companies from technology, advertising agencies, media sellers and data vendors who are pooling their expertise and efforts to, according to the press release, “bring transparency and data security to the ad tech supply chain through blockchain technology.” According to their press release, founding member companies include, Canoe, GroupM, Cadent, Meredith, IPG Mediabrands and Neustar, among others.

Why Apply Blockchain to Digital Media

At a recent Frankfurt Kurnit event, Gordon Platt, President, Gotham Media, explained that when it comes to media and advertising, "Blockchain technology will bring media licensing and distribution into the 21st Century, enabling creators to control access to their work and ensuring that they get paid for its use."

Eric John, Deputy Director, Video Center of Excellence at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) noted that in the areas of fraud and safety, “It takes automation to and entirely new level.” On the plus side, blockchain offers a failsafe, verifiable, immutable protocol to permanently link data for use in transactions and data tracking. Privacy compliance is part of this focus.

But caution is advised. “Putting a social network on the blockchain is harder than you think,” warned Benji Rogers, CEO and Co-Founder, Dot Blockchain Media. “If it links to extremist content, you can never take it down,” he explained. “You might siphon millions of dollars to the wrong person and can’t turn it off.”

Privacy Compliance Legislation

The concern about data privacy is being addressed through legislation by the EU called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) scheduled to go into effect in May 2018. Its implementation is a call to action for companies interested in creating and supporting a privacy compliant peer-to-peer decentralized network for media. Through the use of blockchain, companies can address a range of data issues from transparency to supply chain inefficiency to data security and portability to reconciliation and payments that comply with the new EU regulation.

According to Gabe Greenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of GABBCON, Global Audience Based Buying Conference and Consultancy, “Blockchain has the ability to help media by illuminating the current opacity in the supply chain and, by extension, eliminating fraud and moving economic value back to publishers and advertisers.” And, importantly, it offers a secure, privacy-compliant ability to transact that protects the user's private data. 

AdLedger Proof of Concepts

AdLedger is working on two different proofs of concept right now. The first is OpenGPDR, which will cryptographically store data on a data controller’s private blockchain, creating an audit trail. This will help companies manage the new privacy rights under the GDPR regulations of the Right to Access and the Right to be Forgotten.

The second proof of concept is Campaign Reconciliation which focuses on streamlining the campaign reconciliation process showing “what a campaign transacted from cradle to grave would look like on a blockchain,” stated Greenberg. Led by Amichai Lichtenstein, Director of Product Management at AppNexus, the project includes the creation of a contained blockchain network with a set number of players that combines disparate sources of immediate metrics based on measurement KPI’s tied to campaign delivery. Touted as a single source of truth, the ledger will ideally showcase blockchain’s ability to reduce the amount of campaign discrepancies and offer more transparency for buyers and sellers.

Challenges to Implementation

But there are still some challenges to overcome. The most frequently cited challenge, Greenberg noted, is speed. “The traditional ad tech landscape has high QPS (queries per second) demands that blockchain today would struggle to support, but we are confident that the technology will continue to evolve,” he stated, and added, “Saying that this will remain a challenge forever is assuming no innovation or iteration -- it's like saying a 5-year-old will never be tall enough to ride a roller coaster.” Even with this challenge, the expectation is that there will be increasing traction to embed blockchain in digital media throughout 2018.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Data is a Multi-Faceted Gem With Sharp Distinctions

The world of advanced advertising is expanding in terms of attention and participation. There are more opportunities for advertisers to improve performance and for content providers to maximize the value of their inventory. A range of industry speakers outlined all these new initiatives at the recent MultiChannel B&C Addressable Advertising conference. The conclusion? It all comes down to data.

In discussions involving the use of data in advanced advertising or programmatic and across the myriad of proprietary data initiatives being offered by content companies, it is easy to become confused. I have over 38 years of research and data experience and I get confused by who is doing what and how they are doing it. But in all of this industry confusion, there is a way to see through the fog of announcements and claims. My suggestion is to look at data according to areas of purpose.

“There are two big transformations occurring in the media industry: the consumption of media across a plethora of digital devices and the growth of purchasing and behavioral datasets that enable advertisers to segment customers more precisely with messages.  New measurement solutions need to address both trends,” explained Jane Clarke, CEO, Managing Director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). 

Data for Currency – The Industry POV

Data for currency includes any industry accepted metric that is used at both buyers and sellers of media. In linear TV that is currently Nielsen age and gender. With the announcement of Nielsen total ratings for cross platform measurement the question begs whether this will help to evolve the current Nielsen currency. When asked, Megan Clarken, President of Global Product Leadership for Nielsen, said that their latest Total Audience product will “influence and inform the currency. There were new rules that were established in 2007 where we now report out to 7 days with the exact same ad load. So this is a settlement number. The currency today does not show total audience across platforms but our Total Audience service does.”

So is there any way to get to a generally accepted industry currency for the new suite of advertising opportunities? Dan Aversano, SVP Ad Innovation and Programmatic Solutions at Turner, is not so sure. He concludes, “Most data is third party data that is available to everybody. From the advertiser and agency viewpoint, it is better to start with data, even if progressing with different solutions. The future is not one currency.” 

In the world of cross platform, maybe instead of currency we really mean greater automation. Chris Pizzurro, Head of Product Sales and Marketing for Canoe, spoke from the cable VOD viewpoint and said, “Years ago we used spreadsheets. And we hooked clients into our systems via integration with companies like Freewheel and Broadway Systems etc. Now 60% of our business through such systems. We have the advantage of not having a traditional system for on demand so we can write the rules. We use a little bit of TV rules and a little bit of digital rules.”

Data for Planning – The Agencies POV

Partnerships and data fueled initiatives are announced every day whether it is to forward thought leadership in cross platform, addressable advertising or programmatic.  "Data influenced TV is here," noted Adam Gaynor, VP Media Sales, Dish. “We are in the beginning stage to reach impressions in TV automatically. We can get targeting and ROI. Programmatic adds automation.”

But the essential goal of advertising has not changed. “Although consumer video viewing behaviors have fragmented, an advertiser’s fundamental marketing objectives have not changed: Finding the specific, right audiences, aggregating them at scale and driving them to the desired action,” explained George Musi, Managing Partner, Analytics, Insights and Attribution, Mindshare. “To do this we need to take the different relevant contexts, modes and types of data sources and diverse analytical tools to shorten the time to opportunities.”

How much do individual company data initiatives impact the media sales marketplace for the long term? Data for planning - that which is used for sales purposes like targeting and segmentation – is difficult to standardize because if it is based on segments, there would have to be consensus on a standard set of segments. 

Mitch Oscar, Director, Programmatic TV Strategy, USIM, concurred, “Currently, there is no unified source to assist agency buying departments to purchase addressable TV. Each platform must be contacted individually to ascertain a match between a marketer's customized universe and the platform's subscriber base. And each platform defines targeting goals differently utilizing a variety of sources. Similarly, platforms work with third party data providers to vivisect subscriber attributes to sway buyers to purchase their platform. Marketers are not able to verify the data points presented by the platforms. It is still a blind match between platforms and third party data providers and the resulting segmentation presented to buyers.”

Data for Insights – The Programmers POV

As opposed to data for planning and currency, the industry also needs data for insights. Data for insights includes that which informs program and campaign performance beyond the currency - what is my conversion, what is my ROI, what are my viewers doing beyond the first platform or device? This is no easy matter.

According to Dan Aversano, SVP Ad Innovation and Programmatic Solutions at Turner, “It has to be about the data and the analytics - all of the things that make an ad connect with someone. Ascertaining how many times and measuring the creative, the context, the recency and the platform. And screens are not agnostic. My personal phone is different from the tablet I use for work. We need to measure the interrelations and the impact of how an ad performs on different platforms, devices and conditions.”

The rush for more and more data analytics will continue as new devices and platforms are developed and the quest for a way to link all type of user hardware and technology continues. Ultimately it is the siloization of data and of data solutions that are causing the greatest miscommunication in the marketplace. How to bring it all together into one voice is the critical next step for currency. But we may all want to sing our own tunes when mining data for planning and insight purposes.

Addressable Advertising Pushes the Television Evolution

The recent B&C Content Show dedicated a full half day to discussions regarding the advancements in addressable advertising, TV programmatic and transforming traditional advertising. But it was also a love song to STB data, segmentation, ROI data and analytics.

Addressable advertising is reaching scale according to Jaime Power of GroupM’s Mobi Media who said that the footprint is currently "42 million HH and expected to grow to 60 million HH" with a steady expansion from local into scatter and national outplays." But he cautioned that "addressable will not replace traditional TV because we need traditional TV for reach." I agree with Power to a point because I believe that traditional TV itself needs to evolve from a spots and dots sales model to segmentation and proof of ROI. Addressable may facilitate traditional TV’s evolution especially as addressability rolls out to a more nationalized  distribution and as television itself becomes more digital in the world of 100% smart TVs.

The Traditional TV Model is Changing
The television business has been undergoing stress and change. Sales are down across many networks and projections indicate that the trend could continue. When asked if Addressable can save the TV environment, Power replied that "TV has to evolve- it is unrecognizable compared to ten years ago. We need to understand the new landscape and find ways to measure it. Not all customers are the same. We need to need to get to the custom level and reach core segments. Like purchase data where we can locate not just households with a dog but households that buy a certain dog food. You need to prove you can steal share by honing in on people's viewing behavior. We are using STB data and working close with analytics teams."

Research and Analytics are Critical

Virtually every panel touched on the need for measurement, targeting, analytics and usable data sets as part of their company's addressable initiative. Ben Tatta of Cablevision explained that "Data analytics is a new thing for television. Now we are conducting forensics on the data, on exposure and on response. (we recognize the ) importance of first party data. For the first time advertisers can use their own customer file. Age and gender have been proxies. We now don't have to do modeling. We are literally counting Sales." Keith Kazerman of DirectTV fielded "over 500 campaigns this year where we go into deep analytics that are more than age and gender."

What is Big Data?
A panel on big data moderated by Barry Frey of the DPAA was tasked with defining big data. According to Chris Pizzurro of Canoe, "For us big data is about a ton of small data. We dig in and bring up insights from that. We measure each individual ad." Eric Schmitt of Allant had a slightly different view saying "We see big data and bigger data. Big data is 120 million TV households. Bigger data is activity data. We bring them together in a privacy safe way getting to audience based models across a range of platforms."

Sales Feels the Pressure

The pressures on the traditional TV sales model are coming from several angles. AMC’s Arlene Manos said that “TV advertising has to change. We didn't have the tools and weren't asked for the accountability but now we have accountability in digital and they want it in TV.” Mobi’s Seth Walters cast a more somber note explaining that “a clunky interface is part of the reason that viewers go OTT. Netflix is another reason. Roku is far easier to navigate and in some cases they are faster. Viewers can easily and quickly identify content that matters to them. What is the role of TV advertising once that occurs?” The sales solution? Brian Stempeck of The Trade Desk believes that it is “inevitable that TV will go programmatic.”

Despite all of the hand wringing I believe that traditional television has succeeded for over 60 years because it responds to change and continuously evolves. There has always been competition from other platforms from radio and print to digital devices. While we continue to grapple with how to evolve the business model in this changing environment, new successful solutions will be found. As Adam Lowy of Dish concluded,“Eventually we will get there. TV is the first screen.” I agree.

First published, in abbreviated form, on MediaBizBloggers.com