Looking Ahead on Tomorrow’s Tech Advancements

In a previous article I asked industry experts to recall their most amazing technological advancements from their early careers. Now I ask them to look forward and give me their best technological advancement predictions for 2018. My prediction is that more collaboration between companies will result in a more standardized system for buying, selling and tracking media. I also see A.I. playing a greater role in establishing behavioral patterns that can be used to craft content and target advertising. 

Jane Clarke, CEO, Managing Director, CIMM: In 2018, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers will launch an open standard audio watermark that can embed content and ad identifiers from EIDR and Ad-ID, along with time stamps and station identifiers.  This will hopefully bring innovation to automating TV workflows, and in the ability to track playout and measure audiences in real time!  

Sheryl Feldinger, Media Consultant: I'm fortunate to work with some tech-forward companies, so I see a lot of early adopter behavior at large organizations. In 2018, I think more companies will take a page from the social media playbook and embrace video chat in the work place. It works great, and does not require expensive equipment. The more traditional media companies are still a bit camera shy, but I hope that changes because video chat is as close as you can get to F2F meetings without leaving your time zone.

Dave Morgan, CEO and Founder, Simulmedia: The biggest technological advancement in 2018 won't be a new technology per se, but better utilization of technology that we already have. In 2018, the biggest advancement will be on the technology user side. Every day, more and more people working in the media industry are learning how to better exploit technology, whether it is the cloud or machine learning or predictive analytics. The biggest technological impacts this year will be driven by people, not some new code.

Brad Adgate, Independent Media Researcher:  I think the use of Artificial Intelligence to help manage the amount of data that are being used to make media recommendations will gain traction in 2018 and in the years ahead.

Caroline Horner, Co-Founder, Spicy Tequila: In 2018 it will be 1) Addressable hits scale with advancement from Spectrum, Comcast, OTT/Smart TVs, and 5G and ATSC 3.0.  And other intermediaries. 2) Blockchain technologies prove capable of resolving ID across distribution points. 3) MTA and AI optimize performance in tighter and more responsive cycles. And in 2019 I believe that it will be the re-emergence of the creative role in ad effectiveness.

Mitch Oscar, Advanced TV Strategist, USIM:  I predict that we will still be grappling with the technology and its functionality. We can now fast forward but what if the technology was able to extract the commercials so if I watch in the recorded mode I did not even have to fast forward. Some services are offering that capability now with a new setting. I see that as a real concern going forward. I also believe that addressability was introduced in 1996 and it is going to happen any day now. 

Arlene Manos, President Emeritus, AMC Networks: Greater expansion of OTT, and increased social media application.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Looking Back on the Technological Advancements of Yesterday

At this time of great disruption in the media industry, I find it interesting to look back and realize that disruption in media was always a constant. The systems we used to measure content continually changed, improved and even disrupted our ways of doing business. I recall that, when I was an intern at NBC years ago, I was impressed that my computer did not require punch cards. Am I dating myself? Probably. 

As we embark on 2018, I asked others in the industry to answer the question: “When you first started in the industry, what was the most amazing device/application/program/aspect/item at the time?” One person noted that in the 1990s when she was at Discovery “it was PCs and the internet. That technology changed everything.” For others, it was a range of other advancements:

Arlene Manos, President Emeritus, AMC Networks: When I started at A&E, we did a lot by spreadsheet. Someone I hired as an intern’ recently mentioned in an article, that he shared a computer with me since they were scarce. The first system we were on was Columbine, followed by a Nesbitt system for planning and posting. Don’t remember any more than that.

Mitch Oscar, Advanced TV Strategist, USIM:  In 1999 it was the introduction of TiVo, The inventor came to my office to talk to me about advertising and TiVo’s functionality. At about the same time, the head of IPG called me and said, “So advertising is dead?” TiVo was momentous because everyone was worried about the impact of two functionalities – the recording of programming and the ability of fast forwarding to skip commercials. We wondered if the speed be would be fast or slow enough to see the brand messaging.

Caroline Horner, Co-Founder, Spicy Tequila: Well, this will show my age...a desktop PC with a spreadsheet and database application and for data...LNA, MRI, Scanner data (IRI, I think.) and IMS (I started in a healthcare agency.) Then it was online services (pre-AOL) and then anything internet… and a laptop, cellphone and modem. Then there was the introduction of Java and JavaScript and dynamic webpage generation with ad serving, SAS enterprise miner, set top box data, mobile video, growth of marketing database companies, Programmatic. Addressable TV!

Kathy Newberger, Advanced Advertising Consultant: I was working in local ad sales at the time and we said it was going to be digital ad insertion. We were going from six networks that were inserted using tape decks to sixteen networks using digital equipment. We thought that was going to be amazing … and it was. Now it’s amplified by 500 times more – every network is insert-able. And on top of that is OTT.

Brad Adgate, Independent Media Researcher:  I think the most important introduction early in my career were spreadsheets. Long gone products like Lotus 1-2-3 and afterwards Quattro Pro were being used. Before that, workers used those large green accounting pads and calculators to fill in the data, took a lot longer and more error prone.

Dave Morgan, CEO and Founder, Simulmedia: In early 1993, I was working in "new media" helping newspaper companies develop ad and content strategies for early online services and partnerships with telcos and cable companies and had a chance to play with the Mosaic browser. It was pretty clear, even then, that a user managed rendering engine like the browser would change the media industry, particularly for print companies with text and still photos, which rendered well even without high speed internet. It certainly did.

Jane Clarke, CEO, Managing Director, CIMM: Back in 1982, we were analyzing clickstream data from set top boxes in a Pilot Test for Time Teletext, which was a text and graphic service similar to the early AOL, but delivered via the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) of a channel on Time Warner’s cable system!  I never thought it would take this long to get to nationally representative samples of Return Path Data!

Sheryl Feldinger, Media Consultant: I often comment to my 16-year-old that the biggest difference between growing up today versus the 1970s is the pace of life. Everything happens so much faster today. The pace of communication, especially, flies at warp speed. Confession: early in my career, fax machines were a game changer. They revolutionized the work place. No longer could you tell the client, "We will messenger it to your office first thing tomorrow." The new retort was, "Why wait? You can fax it tonight!" It didn't matter that the edges of the thermal paper curled. All of a sudden, deadlines got pushed up and we all had to work faster.

Next article – Looking Ahead to 2018.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Managing Local TV Market Traffic in the Ad Tech Age

Local traffic systems are often legacy systems, having processed local TV market buys for the industry for years. Now, in an age of greater data diversity and granularity, many of these systems are straining to keep up—but the future of local TV market traffic must bring change.

You Need Data and Reach

With big data sets now available to measure television, a low sample size should be a thing of the past—even at the local level. “Of the local agency clients (of Rentrak) with whom I have spoken, they have stressed the importance of stability in the ratings, availability across all networks, ‘no zeroes,’ and the ability to characterize the audience beyond age-gender,” says Caroline Horner, co-founder of advertising agency SpicyTequila. Horner also notes that advertisers buying across multiple markets want consistent metrics and tools.

This means local traffic systems should be able to import more granular data to better track contract inventory. There’s also a need to go beyond ratings and delivery as a measure of success in trafficking contracts. Reach is becoming even more of a must-have for advertisers—but few systems have updated or attempted to address either reach or target reach. “The growing importance of local reach and the need for updating the reach methodology is a common conversation,” says Horner.

Read the full article at the Videa blog.

Multiple System Operators Bridge the Gap to Local Ads

Marketers adjusting to changes in consumer behavior must get closer to the consumers themselves. A recent Forrester report said as much, and Caroline Horner, co-founder of advertising agency Spicy Tequila, points out how this shift is driving a new advertising framework: “Local is the new national.” And when it comes to local marketing, multiple system operators (MSOs) can help.

MSOs include cable operators like Comcast and Cox, and are a type of multichannel video-programming distributor (MVPD), like large telecommunication companies. MSOs are provided local advertising minutes by their broadcast and cable affiliates as part of their operator agreements. This time is parceled out to local and regional sales teams, as well as to third parties like programmatic exchanges and advanced television reps. The advertising time offered by the MSOs is comparatively short—often only two minutes per hour—so maximizing value is vital to accelerating this business.

The Growth in Data
The ability to measure local data has improved greatly as STB data has merged with other data sets—such as Nielsen and first-party—and segmentations. “Programmatic TV is about data first,” says Rick Ducey, managing director at BIA/Kelsey, and it tends to lead to the local.
Read the full article on the Videa blog.

Rentrak's Rubik. Q&A with Caroline Horner

Caroline Horner was an early pioneer in Set Top Box data through her work digital experience and leadership position at Dish. Now, as SVP Product Innovation at Rentrak, she is helping to create a more versatile data toolbox so the advertising and entertainment industries can discover and unlock new value.

In this fascinating interview, Horner talks about her work at Rentrak gathering the data into one user platform, the impact of connected TV and DVRs on the industry, her work at the agencies, technology trends and the impact on legacy businesses. In addition, she offers her insights into what the media landscape may look like 5 years from now.

There are five videos in the interview:

Title                                                      (Length in Minutes)
Background and Rentrak                        (5:33)
STB Data and DVRs                              (6:30)
Predictions and Legacy                         (8:14)
Standard Metrics                                   (7:14)
Programmatic and connected TV            (5:13)

Charlene Weisler interviews Caroline Horner who talks about her background and her work at Rentrak in this 5:33 minute video:

CW: What are you currently working on at Rentrak?

CH: I am building the data products I have always wanted as a client. When you are working in advertising you are often working with very awkward data and everyone has a question that they need to answer from their clients. I now have the opportunity to gather all the data in one place and build a system that reports all the data that we want to report. What is real reach? What is real frequency?  What is the behavior of the people that is absolutely evidence of their interaction with the content? I get to do that here.

Caroline Horner talks to Charlene Weisler about her views on STB data and DVRs in this 6:30 minute video:

CW: Rentrak announced a new data initiative called Rubik. Can you tell us about it?

CH: Sure. Rubik is a household level data set that we pulled from our massive data set. It’s about a half million homes and we are providing an environment where clients tunnel into our server and they can do the analytics at the household level to analyze what people are doing. One thing that Rentrak has always done is aggregate the data. We heard that our clients wanted more flexibility, they wanted to do custom analytics on the fly and so we made a dataset available. We have over ten network clients using the product right now. We have attached 4000 to 5000 segmentations on it – Boolean segmentation – the ability to cross different segments together. So whether you are a Jeep owner or a cat owner you can target those consumers. The other side of it is the ability to do dynamic targeting – create a user group or a viewer group that perhaps didn’t get exposed to any Jeep ads, how do you re-plan a campaign for them.

CW: What trends are you seeing among consumers in how they are using the new technology?

CH: It is dramatic. When I started we were in the 20-30% DVR penetration. Now you see a lot of time shifting that helps consumers see a lot more content. Even more than that is the On Demand where you don’t have to remember to make a selection to record a show. At the same time there is more DVR capacity where people can store more of what they want to watch over time. So we are seeing a lot of pull away from the live component (although that is still very important). Free on demand has been tremendous. People have been sampling and, when they like what they see, place it on their DVR for future viewing. More studying will be done on DVRs – what people choose to record, how long they keep it and how long before they actually view it. Do they need to keep up or will they binge? You can do homemade bingeing. Digital is also starting to have some impact with viewing on devices. What I see is that live streaming is very similar to live television. But the on demand is almost exactly the same on the set top box as it is in the digital environment. The future could bring curated channels where social meets television. We are not there yet but the future could bring groups together who recommend content to each other. 

Caroline Horner talks to Charlene Weisler about how the media landscape may look over the next 3 to 5 years in this 8:14 minute video:




Charlene Weisler talks to Caroline Horner who talks about standard metrics in this 7:14 minute video:

CW: All TVs being sold today are connected TVs. How will that impact data, measurement and consumer usage?

CH: Data – it’s getting a little scary because there is such fragmentation and there has been an opinion to hold back data. I don’t think that helps networks and I don’t think it helps advertisers. I think it really hurts the industry for folks to hide what is going on. I know the instinct is to protect competitive information but it is hurting the ability of people to understand the value of that inventory. Measurement – I think transparency is important. If you hold on to it, it can’t be transparent and people don’t know how to judge comparative value. The word “fraud” is ugly, but it is hard to have a benchmark that is the same if folks are hiding data. So I think it is important for measurement to be brought together – edited the same way, MRC accredited. We all have to agree on what is currency.  Consumer usage – there will continue to be experimentation and I think it will amplify very quickly. There have been some breaches in the programmer deals. They are beginning to sell content into these OTT systems and the permissions are there – in the Sling TVs and the Apple TVs. Right now there is not a lot of choice. There are only a handful of viewer carriers. Something like Apple TV can become a real threat to the environment.

What are the potentials for connected TVs and Programmatic selling? Caroline Horner tells Charlene Weisler her views in this 5:13 minute video: