Framing the Issues
With radical
transformation impacting traditional business models, how can companies manage
the future? Domenic Dimeglio, Senior Vice President Distribution and
Operations, CBS
Interactive, framed the discussion by asking, “what is the business model
that fills in the white space with consumers?” while Robert Weisbord, Chief
Revenue Officer, Sinclair
Broadcast Group, noted, “There has to be something unique about the
offering.”
Executives
can no longer complacently work towards simply meeting short term goals. Annual
revenue budgets are only the start. “We have to prepare for a different
marketplace with streaming cord cutting and much more data,” stated Jon
Steinlauf, Chief U.S. Advertising Sales Officer, Discovery.
It often requires creating internal teams focused strictly on the future. “We
have a team within Discovery that was further along than we were to position
better for the future,” Steinlauf added.
For Krishan
Bhatia, Executive Vice President, Business Operations and Strategy, NBCUniversal,
“Because we are a global distribution and content company, we spent two to
three years integrating our portfolio to create value together.” This macro
level approach could not be achieved unless there is internal cooperation and
buy-in. “Culture is a driver of success,” he concluded.
Audiences
Kathleen
Finch, Chief Lifestyle Brands Officer, Discovery, when asked how she would
reach audiences of the future noted that it will be, “hard to know what the
market will bear,” in terms of costs. “I don’t know what I am spending,” she
added. The real challenge is measurement which, as Adam Rattner, Executive Vice
President, Managing Director, Samsung, Starcom, explained, “Until we get great
measurement it will be hard to monetize.”
For Lisa
Heimann, Executive Vice President, Corporate Research and Strategy,
NBCUniversal, “No one data source is good for anything. Which data is good at
answering what questions?” She added, “Sometimes we need a census data set, sometimes
we need to connect to viewing using panel data. The key is how we are looking
at and using that data. Sometimes we look at specific sources and other times
we rely on data science group using machine learning and AI.” For her it is
essentially comes down to a mix of all data sources.
“We have to
go beyond looking at overnight ratings,” she warned, but added, “Well, maybe
for sports or news but it is dangerously unreliable. Not all viewing is captured
by Nielsen,” because content across platforms, “need to have the same ad load.”
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are demanding two things from content providers; “Transparency of data for
cross platform measurement and the creation of really compelling content. These
are CEO-level questions,” stated Rattner. For Sam Armando, Senior Vice President
National Video Intelligence and Investment, Spark
Foundry, there are measurement challenges that need to be addressed. “Clients
want single source measurement to capture viewers across all screens,” he
stated, “We have a lot more (data) pieces but the pieces don’t fit together.”
Researchers
are stepping up to meet advertiser needs. Tom Ziangus, Senior Vice President,
Research, AMC
Networks is committed to, “Closing the loop,” in the consumer journey and, “Working
closely with agency partners,” on addressing this challenge. “It is all about
collaboration,” as he added, “We must figure it out together. What are the best
practices and learning from our mistakes.” Don Robert, Executive Vice
President, A+E
Networks, confirmed that approach. “We take a consultative approach to try
and figure it out. We are very committed and believe in the power of TV.”
Content Creators
There is
considerable work being done to track and quantify how people discover and
sample shows, “how they catch up and which programs they stick with and which
ones they don’t,” noted Heimann. “Content
is forever now. How can we optimize it? Sometimes it is more down the road.”
For Courtney
Thomasma, Executive Director, BBC America, AMC
Networks, “We have more data than we know what to do it. We have ten times
the amount of data than we had ten years ago. There is the danger of getting
lost in the noise and quantity of data. How do we fuse? Who has access?” she asked.
Her solution is, “more experienced
research minds to strategize the data,” which I heartily support.
And the
numbers don’t have to be big for a show to be considered a success. Passion for
a show counts which requires a, “Holistic sense of who our audiences are and
weighting which audiences are most valuable for us,’ she added. Using research
insights from one passionate show can often lead to the next. Using data
insights, BBCA realized that Killing Eve was a good replacement when Orphan
Black, with a passionate fan base, ended its run.
For Donna D’Alessandro,
Senior Vice President, Programming and Strategy Insights, Discovery, who started her career in Research, the
challenge is the, “need to look fresh and real in speaking to a consumer right
now” because programmers only have a
short window to engage the viewer. “If a viewer turns it on and thinks, it’s
not for me, they will turn it off and never come back.”
Conclusion
With all of
the challenges and opportunities in this Brave New World of Media, Ziangus
summed it up rather succinctly. “We are a lot smarter and a lot dumber,” he
quipped. That rings true to me. For all of the data acumen and insights we harvest,
sometimes it seems as if we have more questions than answers. And that is perhaps
the biggest challenge of all.
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
