Data, Data Everywhere in the Upfront. An Overview - Part 5

This is the fifth and final part of a series examining many of the new data initiatives of major data companies. Parts 1 through 4 outlined the many data initiatives, their scalability, whether their services were gaining traction in the industry and the issue of a standard metric to link systems and platforms. Now in Part 5, we tackle the role of Research in an era of Data. Is its role changing? 

Is there a future of Research as we know it? The question addressed here in Part Five was precipitated by some major changes over the past year including the transitioning of one research department into a data specialist department, layoffs at some other research departments and the building of new, business intelligence departments working in tandem with traditional research departments but reporting to different managements. 

According to ARF CEO Gayle Fuguitt, “There's never been a better or harder time to be in research, insights and analytics, and there's never been a more important time. Data is just facts, without inherent insight.  The role of the new analytics leader is to develop growth ideas and quantity opportunities that bring consumers' needs and values to life and make an emotional connection.”

My Take: My concern about the future of Research is not some random paranoia. There is scuttle talk that even Sales, that sacrosanct area of perpetual expansion, might retrench with the advent of programmatic TV. With change there is transition and even upheaval. So why should Research, even in this age of data worship, not be negatively impacted as well? One would think that the focus on data would catapult Research’s role in C-Suite decision-making but I am of the opinion that the results so far are mixed. In fact, executive titles in Research are now tending to leave off the term “Research” while adding “Analytics”, “Insights” and “Strategy”.  When did “Research” become a title to be avoided?

Question 5: What is the status of the Research department in your company? Has the data imperative changed the perceptions of your departments? If so, how?

Beth Rockwood (Senior Vice President, Market Resources, Discovery Communications): The research group’s responsibilities are growing; we are in the fortunate position of being able to demonstrate the value of our inventory in new ways.  Collaboration with sales teams, agencies and clients, has always been important, but now is much more central to our role as researchers. 

David Poltrack (Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation and President of CBS VISION): It hasn’t changed the perception of our department because we have been looking beyond the demos for many years. We have been working with our sales team on usage based data and metrics that are more definitive than age and sex to evaluate our media offerings vs the competition. The fact is that we have formalized the program and significantly increased our investment because more advertisers are beginning to embrace and talk about these new data sources and the quality and quantity of the data is much greater and more comprehensive today. More and better data and growing advertiser interest have moved research into a more operational part of the business.

Tom Ziangas (SVP Research and Insights, AMC Networks): The AMCN Research team under my leadership has managed a very simple mission statement which is, “WE MAKE EVERYONE SMARTER”.  Our data initiatives are a function the lack of movement by industry research partners. We need a holistic view into the world of media and how it is being consumed across platform & device, our data initiatives are exposing key stakeholders in Senior management, Ad-Sales, Programming, Marketing and Affiliate on how we can better target, segment, use 3rd party data and understand the behaviors’ of our consumers.

Geri Wang (President ABC Sales, ABC): Research continues to be a critical component of our ABC and larger TWDC organization, and, as the emergence of new types of data and use cases evolve, we are continuing to invest in new capabilities and people across our organization.  We’ve hired a number of data scientists to work specifically on data modeling and targeting initiatives, and have in the past year created a new group within the NY Sales organization responsible for all data-driven and programmatic sales strategy and implementation.  We expect those investments in people and capabilities to continue.

Katie Larkin (EVP Advertising Sales Research and Strategy, NBCU): All of advertising sales research came together under one roof last year. We are focused on our clients’ needs and bringing comprehensive data-driven capabilities to the marketplace. We added a dedicated analytics team and we are pushing forward to find new metrics in order to give clients better insights. Our move to Cogent Reports for CNBC’s Business Day is an example of needing to go beyond Nielsen because their measurement of out of home viewers and highly affluent audience is inadequate. Our research and insights continue to evolve as we drive and lead in this space of data and analytics.

Paul Haddad (SVP and General Manager Advanced Data Analytics, Cablevision Media Sales): With the availability of census level set-top box data the concept of research and reporting evolves to accurate and accountable measurement that leads to advanced insights and analytics. We see data as glue across all platforms. Without it, there would be no realizing the full value in new advanced advertising techniques. Data is plugged into every platform and every step of our work flow, and comprehensive census-level data is crucial for more accurate measurement in general.

Kern Schireson (EVP, Data Strategy and Consumer Intelligence, Viacom): Research has long been an essential aspect of our business, but we no longer separate data from research. Data and research work in unison at Viacom, and both continue to broaden and evolve at our company ever-rapidly to stay ahead of the pace at which our consumers’ consumption behaviors change as they engage with our brands and stories across an expanding array of platforms and experiences.

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

Data, Data Everywhere in the Upfront. An Overview - Part 4

This is the fourth part of a five part series examining many of the new data initiatives of major data companies. Parts 1 through 3 outlined the many data initiatives, their scalability and whether their services were gaining traction in the industry. Now in Part 4, we ask whether there should be a standard metric that helps to link all of these initiatives and if so, what should that metric be?

Bill Feininger, President, MassiveData at Fourthwall Media, is immersed in the data reportage aspect of set top box data. He says, “In my opinion, impressions and reach are the most meaningful in measuring ad target performance and delivery to specific audience segments.” But as you will see from the following media company quotes, while there is some consensus for delivery, there is also a growing interest in ROI, engagement, segmentation and a measurement metric that may vary from company to company.

My take: If there is to be a serious consideration for cross company data services scalability (as well as an industry accepted cross platform measurement), we need to agree on a standard metric. It could be delivery. It could be reach. It could even be a form of ROI, although that might be harder to standardize across advertising categories. But if we cannot agree to a common measurement metric, our ability to create an industry-wide measurement for the 21^st Century that is not based on “proxies” of age and gender is severely compromised. And if we continue to rely on age / gender, we will not realize the true value of big data in our media currency. 

Question 4: Do we need a standard metric with all of these data innovations? If so then what should it be?

David Poltrack (Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation and President of CBS VISION): We need to be able to employ the new metrics across the full range of platform and programming options. However, the metrics used by each marketer are likely to vary considerably. This limits the benefits of standardization. 

Tom Ziangas (SVP Research and Insights, AMC Networks): I would prefer a “common” metric and they should be time spent, reach (duplicated and unduplicated) and gross average impressions.

Paul Haddad (SVP and General Manager Advanced Data Analytics, Cablevision Media Sales): Today, the advertisers demand for a standard metric has been increasing and we view the evolution to an audience impression measurement as a viable solution to accommodate the multi-screen aspect of media planning.  Census-level data provides more stability with audience segmentation – unlike sample-based methods that break down with audience fragmentation. There is a growing amount of data available however, it remains in silos and the industry would benefit from a more formalized structure to normalize the data. Once a connection is made for the disparate datasets we will have a complete, holistic view of consumption, and the ability to reach audiences based on how consumers consume.

Beth Rockwood (Senior Vice President, Market Resources, Discovery Communications): In order to have a marketplace, at least for the near term, it is important to have a standard metric.  This will continue to be age/sex demographics, as measured by Nielsen.  As advertisers and networks become more comfortable with new data sets, we will begin to place a greater priority on behavioral targets, and tip more towards these metrics, since they are closer to clients KPI’s.

Katie Larkin (EVP Advertising Sales Research and Strategy, NBCU): We are at a time in our industry where we need to move beyond age and gender. We can be more precise with consumer and behavioral targeting. Technology has changed the world by giving consumers more access and more choice. Reach and concentration of target audiences are key metrics for marketers to target today's audiences. Beyond that, we have the potential to provide ROI analytics which varies by client based on their KPI's.

Mike Rosen (Executive Vice President, Advertising Sales, NBCU): When any marketer is looking for a competitive advantage in their category, standardization doesn’t give you a competitive advantage. You need a unique way to measure against a unique strategy.

Geri Wang (President ABC Sales, ABC): We need to agree that the unit of trade will continue to be the impression and, as digital and linear TV evolve to similar addressable models, that we are counting impressions the same way. Today, TV ratings are based on average minute commercial ratings and digital inventory is based on ad-served impression counts with varying degrees of viewability and fraud factored in.  We need a common cross-platform impression definition so that addressable ads can be counted and managed equitably.  Additionally, we need to recognize that as data offerings “fragment” and become proprietary, it will be much more difficult for buyers and sellers to evaluate the marketplace on an apples-to-apples basis.  Some level of industry standardization around audience segmentation will be required for the marketplace to evolve in a scalable fashion.

Kern Schireson (EVP, Data Strategy and Consumer Intelligence, Viacom): With the many ways content is being consumed, we are focused on continuously evolving and innovating our data capture and proprietary predictive methods in order to bring advertisers precisely to the consumers they want to engage with meaningfully. The impact of engagement is more relevant than ever, and that’s a key area of focus for us.

Hanna Gryncwajg (SVP Sales, RLTV):  I'm not sure we can get to a fully standard metric considering all of the different data available today. That said, I do think the industry would move quicker to scalable metrics if there were some broad category standards and, within those categories, specific attributes that could be bundled together with an algorithmic application.  This would also enable small/independent networks and big media companies to be able to compete in the same format.

Part 5, to be published next week, gives the nod to Research and asks the question - What is the status of the Research department in your company? Has the data imperative changed the perceptions of your departments? If so, then how?

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

Data, Data Everywhere in the Upfront. An Overview - Part 3

This is the third in a series of articles examining and comparing all of the data initiative announcements taking place this upfront. Part One was a two sentence description of each initiative. 

 Part Two asked participants whether their data offering was gaining traction and impacting their business. Now, in Part Three, the question is whether these initiatives are scalable and if so, how.

There is a bit of skepticism in the industry regarding true scalability of these initiatives which, for many, means adoptable across the industry. As Liz Janneman, EVP Ad Sales at Ovation TV, said, “From a marketer’s perspective, how can they aggregate all of this data from (different networks) and all other partners if the data is propitiatory and therefore can’t be aggregated across their entire media buy?”   How indeed? But for others, scalability means the ability to grow the data service more deeply within a company and across one’s owned media properties. 

My Take: At this point I am not sure that many of these data initiatives are truly scalable outside the walls of the company. For a variety of reasons, I do not expect any of these initiatives to expand and integrate into general industry use anytime soon. They are generally proprietary services, some with a “secret sauce” of datasets and algorithms. Just like the agency optimizer models of yesteryear, today’s data initiatives seem to serve as a marketable point of difference for networks. I believe that it is the combination of quality content, deliverability of targeted audiences within the currency and sales service backing up all transactions that will be ultimate arbiter of business success. But offering a way to accentuate ROI through the data chain is a nice added bonus that may tip a sales decision in a network’s favor .

CW: Is your data initiative scalable? If so how?

Katie Larkin (EVP Advertising Sales Research and Strategy, NBCU): Yes – NBCUniversal’s broadcast, cable, Hispanic, news and sports programming are all included IN ATP. We are offering this to select clients but broadly across all categories.

Mike Rosen (Executive Vice President, Advertising Sales, NBCU): Our offering, by its nature, is the most scalable of anything in the marketplace because NBCUniversal’s portfolio of assets has the most scale of anyone out there. We reach 93% of all US adults every single month. The essence of optimization is to build effective reach of a specific audience segments.

Stephano Kim (Chief Data Strategist, Turner): Turner Data Cloud will now become Turner’s central repository of data, spanning digital and linear ecosystems. Advertisers and their agencies can now transact in any format they prefer, with any data source they choose, including their own first party data.

Beth Rockwood (Senior Vice President, Market Resources, Discovery Communications): We are working with several systems that will make our initiatives scalable.  Discovery is working with Lake5 for data analytics, and with clypd for audience optimization and a higher level of automation.  Systems are essential, however, good targeting work is customized, requires a higher touch approach and direct collaboration with clients. 

Paul Haddad (SVP and General Manager Advanced Data Analytics, Cablevision Media Sales): Our data-related initiatives continue to grow, and we are now introducing automation. Just a couple of weeks ago we introduced Total Audience Application - an advanced, data-driven platform that leverages the power of first party data sources to automate the audience and media planning of addressable and optimized linear television campaigns.  The platform reduces the media planning process from weeks to just minutes and evolves the traditional, spot-based ad-buying model to one that is audience and impression-based.

David Poltrack (Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation and President of CBS VISION): Yes, it is definitely scalable. From a pure research perspective we are the best equipped network to add analytics for optimal targeting. To underscore this, we recently released data showing that consumers across all major buying categories watch more CBS programming than any other network. By delivering our clients a base audience rich in consumers we are able to layer on analytics to target more efficiently and effectively than our competitors. 

Geri Wang (President ABC Sales, ABC): Our TWDC digital portfolio offering provides marketers with the largest premium video audience marketplace opportunity.  No other media company producing premium original content reaches more people, for more time, with more ad supported video.  Our linear TV offering is rooted in ABC Primetime – this season’s #1 A18-49 Entertainment Primetime lineup.  There’s no better place to find scale.

Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, EVP Ad Sales Strategy, Viacom:  Viacom Vantage is scalable not only because we can offer it across our robust portfolio of networks, but also because we can efficiently handle the A-to-Z process, from analytics to creative integrations to operational and inventory management. 

Tom Ziangas (SVP Research and Insights, AMC Networks): Too early to tell at this juncture, but I believe it will be. Developing our own DMP and Business Analytics Research Tool (BART) that encompasses: Nielsen AMRLD, TVE data, VOD data, Online website data, EST, OTT will make it scalable.

Part 4, to be published next week, asks the question - Do we need a standard metric with all of these data innovations? If so, then what should it be?

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

Data, Data Everywhere in the Upfront. An Overview - Part 1

I have been attending (and contributing to) the upfronts for many years but this appears to be the first year that so many networks are parlaying their innovative Research / Big Data / Analytics expertise as an integral part of their sales promise. “We are at an inflection point,” announced Turner President of Broadcast Sales, Donna Speciale at their recent upfront, “Data and content are officially hitched.” 

There has been a great deal of press on each individual networks’ data innovation and  when you gather all of the pronouncements together, it is a fairly impressive tidal wave of Research that seems to be upending and guiding the media sales process. All in all, it is all very heady for those of us with years toiling in the back offices of Research.

I attended the Turner upfront where Speciale announced, “We are in the Wild West of metrics” as she capped off her presentation with a Big Data video ... preceding all the glossy individual network programming videos and announcements that have always been an Upfront staple. Linda Yaccarino, NBCU Chairman, Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships, announced at her upfront that “Data matters more now than ever,” as part of an initiative where NBCU will use Comcast set top box data.

Turner and NBCU are not alone. There is a lot of noise in the industry as everyone shouts from their own rooftops. I decided that it would be beneficial to get as many of these announcements in one place, asking each company the same set of questions. 

My take: These data approaches are creatively varied in their use of datasets and metrics. Some collect their datasets in a DMP or Cloud while others partner with research vendors for their metrics and custom data. Surprisingly, only some initiatives specifically include set top box data which, along with Nielsen, may be one of the few datasets that can be used to standardize and compare results across networks. Is standardization in our future? It doesn’t seem likely to me at this time.

This the first article in a series. Thank you to all who participated.

Question 1: Does your company have a data initiative? If so what is it in two sentences?

Paul Haddad (SVP and General Manager Advanced Data Analytics, Cablevision Media Sales): Cablevision is leveraging aggregated, de-identified census-level audience tuning data to deliver unmatched audience relevancy, effectiveness and measurement and offering clients impressions-based campaigns that are purchased on a CPM basis vs. GRP. By applying the power of set-top box data to deliver data enriched media campaigns to advertisers and to deliver advanced analytics that provide unique insights we are allowing advertisers to better understand their audiences, and power more effective and efficient media campaigns, ensuring the right messages target the right audience.

Katie Larkin (EVP Advertising Sales Research and Strategy, NBCU): One of our data initiatives is our newly launched Audience Targeting Platform (ATP) which matches set top box data with consumer data and applies that combination to our national portfolio inventory on the broad NBCUniversal portfolio for more precise targeting and schedule optimization.

David Poltrack (Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation and President of CBS VISION): Campaign Performance Audit is a data-driven initiative that helps clients test the effectiveness of their ads, maximize reach and “recency,” and offers more precise targeting and favorable context.  The use of the analytical tools to implement these various components gives clients with a roadmap to planning and purchasing an effective television media buy while also providing a precise and actionable scorecard showing the measurable return on investment of the campaign.

Bill Rosolie (SVP Advertising Sales, Reelz): Reelz is expanding beyond traditional Nielsen audience metrics with a quantifiable audience engagement measure. In conjunction with Magid’s EmotionalDNATM Intentionality Index and Evaluation Scores, we have developed a proprietary engagement measure known as the Z-Score. This score combines the two measurements and can be used across over a 1,000 programs.

Jo Ann Ross (President, CBS Network Sales): In addition to the CPA initiative that we launched in March, CBS is in development of a TV layer to its existing DMP (Data Management Platform) for digital. The goal of this will ultimately be to provide data-enabled decision making across screens, especially for TV planning and buying, like we do today on digital. CBS will come to market with products that provide KPIs important to marketers like; scale, consistency, and proof of ROI. 

Howard Shimmel (Chief Research Officer, Turner Broadcasting): Building on what was introduced last year, we will continue to provide advertisers premium environments with targeting capabilities through our innovative ad products Targeting Now and Audience Now. Further, we will continue to align with marketers to better understand how our campaigns move product, utilizing ROI Now. Our ultimate goal is to provide stronger results for partners. And now with Turner Data Cloud, we are allowing our sales teams to open up the conversation to a more thoughtful scale. Research plays a crucial role in all this.

Audrey Steele (SVP Sales Research & Marketing, FOX Broadcasting): FOX Networks has multiple 3rd party data integrations and our own proprietary data set integrated into our DMP (Data Management Platform) and technology platforms to help clients improve performance on their precision targets for the linear and non-linear audiences.  We have data and technology partnerships that can aid our clients in determining the mix of attributes that define the consumer targets that best deliver on their sales and marketing goals.

Tom Ziangas (SVP Research and Insights, AMC Networks): AMC Networks has created a Business Intelligence group to ingest and manage over twenty data sources to best provide Research and key business stakeholders data and reporting analytics that provide efficiency, speed and insights in the decision making process. We are also moving into a B2C (business to consumer) model and a gaining detailed understanding on how our consumers are interacting with our various media platforms.

Geri Wang (President ABC Sales, ABC):  We have various data initiatives aimed at delivering 1) more relevant audience insights for planning purposes, and 2) varying levels of actionable targeting across our digital and linear video inventory.  ABC Unified Insights, which will launch this fall on ABCAllAccess.com, will provide comprehensive, cross-platform audience and viewing data for ABC programming from aggregated Nielsen, Rentrak, and internal digital platforms.  From a targeting perspective, we have launched two capabilities – one for digital, and one for linear TV.  For digital media, The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) has deployed a single cross-business DMP to centralize our audience data and offer impression level targeting against client data, third party data, as well as some unique TWDC data.  This offering will be available at an aggregated portfolio level across addressable digital media from ABC, ESPN, ABC Family, ABC Owned TV Stations, Disney Channel Media, Makers Studio, and Marvel.  For linear TV, ABC has built a set-top-box based data solution that matches viewership data with client or 3rd party data sources, allowing us to plan and deliver TV schedules that better deliver against a client’s core objectives.

Beth Rockwood (Senior Vice President, Market Resources, Discovery Communications):  Discovery’s client focused research projects are managed through our “Curiosity Lab”.  We work with clients to provide, insights, targeting and accountability on a highly customized basis.  Our new data partnerships will add significant capabilities to the Curiosity Lab, including both first and third party data. 

 

Part 2, to be published next week, asks the question - Is your company's data initiative gaining traction in the industry? How is it impacting your business?

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com