Ovation Upfront Showcases The Power of Art

Let me just start out by saying that I am a great fan of Ovation. It is, as Liz Janneman, Executive Vice President, Network Strategy, Ovation, stated, “America’s only arts network,” whose mission is to celebrate both the classical arts and the cutting edge art of tomorrow. 

Ovation Programming

“Art is a powerful three letter word,” Janneman stated, and Ovation programming “celebrates the artist experience through premium content and compelling storytelling.” To that end, the network announced four shows showcasing that mission including the final season of Versailles, the recently premiered espionage series X Company and new series, The Wine Show and crime thriller Riveria. 

X Company, airing Mondays at 10pm is a World War II based espionage series inspired by true events at Camp X, a top secret Allied spy training camp on Lake Ontario. It is the compelling story of five recruits who go behind enemy lines in Europe to help the Allied forces defeat the Nazis. 

Versailles, airing on Saturdays at 10p is now in its sophomore year and will enter its third and final season in October 2018.  George Blagden, who plays King Louis XIV on the program, marveled at the series’ authenticity. The series is partially filmed on the actual grounds at Versailles, “one of the eight wonders of the world,” he noted, “There is no pretending – we are actually in the 350 year old space where ballet was invented and  opera performed.” 

The Wine Show, Wednesdays at 10p, takes a storytelling approach to wine connoisseurship. With wines spanning eleven countries over five continents, wine expert and host Joe Fattorini assured the upfront crowd that anyone can become a wine expert in 90 seconds. “Look for BLIC,” he explained, “that is, Balance – is it fruity or acidic, Length – how long does the taste stay in your mouth, Intensity – of the wine flavor and Complexity –you should note no more than three distinct tastes.” Every bottle of wine tells a great story. 

Riviera, which is “a sensation in the UK,” according to Janneman, debuts February 2019 on Ovation. The program is a crime mystery thriller set in France that follows an art curator who is trying to solve the mystery of her husband’s murder. Her quest devolves into the lurid aspects of art theft and how art can be used for money laundering.  

Multiplatform Targeting to A25-54

Ovation recently launched a new OTT service called Journy that is streamed on Roku and Xumo smart TVs, featuring art, culture and travel programming. While the network continues to target Adults 25-54 with discretionary income and high education, Janneman, also explained that, “With Journy and the platforms that it is displayed on, we are targeting a younger subset of that demographic but still in the same theme of art, culture and travel,” offering the younger cohort an truly immersive experience.

Journy initiatives for 2018 include, according to Elba Flamenco, Ovation’s Senior Director of Content Partnerships, “adding even more programming content and expanding our app to several TV connected devices to increase distribution, ” such as Apple, Amazon and Chrome.

Advocating for the Arts

Ovation is also a strong advocate for the arts with outreach programs. Janneman noted that “We have formed a Stand for the Arts Coalition with more than 30 organizations joining the cause such as Alvin Ailey, American Ballet Theater, National Humanities Center and the American Film Institute. All of these organizations are working together to promote art and art access.” 

This advocacy is moving into the political realm in regards to government funding of the arts. “We have come out against the de-funding of the NEA. We are not a recipient of any NEA funding but we have stated that for every dollar that the NEA spends, $5 comes back to the economy, “she noted, “We believe that when the NEA provides a grant, it is a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval which then enables that organization to secure more private funding.” 

If the NEA is abolished, Janneman believes that the Stand for the Arts Coalition will get larger and offer organizations an even stronger voice to promote the arts. “Someone has to step up power of art and carry the mantle of arts,” she concluded.  

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.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 2

In our continuing series comparing all of the data initiatives rolling out in our industry, I have asked a range of media executives the same set of questions. Last week, these executives spelled out their data initiatives in two (sometimes very long) sentences.

The initiatives keep coming - more companies, spurred by the publication of last week’s article, contacted me to say that they too are in the data space. Jeff Lucas, Head of Sales at Viacom Media Networks, added his voice to the discussion, saying that “Viacom has listened to clients and has been ahead of the data curve by identifying ways to capture data differently and piloting new ad products several years ago.” For an independent network like Ovation, the jockeying for data positioning is just so much showmanship. Liz Janneman, EVP Ad Sales at Ovation TV, noted that there is “so much data and so much noise and confusion on this entire issue.  Everyone is claiming to have the best!”  

It makes for a lively discussion. This week, in Part Two of the series, we ask the industry whether their data efforts are gaining traction and impacting their business.  

My take is that it may be too early to tell if all of these ambitious data initiatives are making an appreciable impact on revenue. Upfront is just getting started. Time will tell. But the ability of companies to scale and deliver on these promises will be pivotal components in any long term revenue generator. With smaller, independent networks, the lack of resources – money as well as data – could pose a challenge for future growth should the industry embrace these big data driven solutions.

Question 2: Is your company's data initiative gaining traction in the industry? How is it impacting your business?

David Poltrack (Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation and President of CBS VISION): Yes, since we announced the initiative in March our CPA offering has gotten a considerable amount of traction. Our preliminary conversations with clients focus on what we are able to do, the accountability we are able to provide, and the tools we will employ to measure the results. While this is NOT part of our upfront negotiations – for interested clients it can certainly be a part of the broader conversation.

Jo Ann Ross (President, CBS Network Sales): Our CPA initiative has garnered significant traction. That said, we have not yet formally launched our cross-platform data management solution. We expect to have options available to advertisers over the next few months that will likely be part of the 2015-2016 season. To date, our data initiatives have been complimentary to our business as we expect the vast majority of TV buying and selling to be transacted on demos for the current upfront.

Mike Rosen (Executive Vice President, Advertising Sales, NBCU): We are bringing ATP into the market for the first time as part of the 15-16 upfront marketplace, and the client reaction across broad categories has been tremendous. Advertisers have embraced the fact that we are bringing them the targeting that they are accustomed to in digital, and employing that level to linear television for the first time ever at massive scale.

Beth Rockwood (Senior Vice President, Market Resources, Discovery Communications):  In the past year we have gained experience in managing behavioral targets in addition to our traditional targets.  Recently, we have seen increased interest from advertisers to improve targeting and optimize the impact of their schedules.  Advertisers are interested in the data as well as in our insights about the connections between our viewers and their brands and how that connection can be leveraged towards ROI.

Howard Shimmel (Chief Research Officer, Turner Broadcasting): We have been executing and learning from our next generation ad capabilities for a couple of years, introducing some of our ad products during last year’s upfront. The initial work involved vetting many of the various data providers. The next stage involved working with Ad Sales to co-create the products we’ve taken to market.  We also worked closely with our Data Science team to build CAE (Competitive Audience Estimator), a system that allows us to forecast audiences for specific advertiser targets that we’re using to drive our targeting products.

Liz Janneman (EVP Ad Sales, Ovation TV): For a deal where we are creating custom content or seamless integration into an original episode, Ovation partners with the advertiser to measure ad recall, purchase intent and likelihood of sharing that positive experience with friends and family.  That advertiser can also add a few other metrics to measure or ask questions to better grasp impact of brand experience or brand integration.  We've conducted many of these studies across a wide category of advertisers and now have sufficient benchmarks to measure against other advertisers in the category or other programs on any other channel.     

 

Paul Haddad (SVP and General Manager Advanced Data Analytics, Cablevision Media Sales): Since introducing census-level audience tuning data, we have seen a record number of campaigns, specifically with our programmers and automotive clients who are using our insights and data to deliver targeted promotions and advertising to households.  Within the industry we are collaborating with multiple players including ESPN and Time Warner Cable – bringing together two leading first-party data sets and providing advertisers unprecedented granularity and robust intelligence about the unique value of the impression.

Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, EVP Ad Sales Strategy, Viacom: Our data initiative, Viacom Vantage, is an innovative predictive ad product that pioneers a new approach to matching advertisers with their custom targets, while offering more choice, more flexibility, and increased accountability. We piloted a beta version of Viacom Vantage more than a year ago with five partners, and the results exceeded expectations. Client feedback has been very positive and we expect to do more Viacom Vantage deals this year because its customization and precise targeting is unique in the marketplace.

Geri Wang (President ABC Sales, ABC): Our initiatives continue to attract significant and growing client interest.  After a successful operational trial last year of our reserved digital programmatic offering, we’ve increased our investment in data, expanded our digital offering, and introduced a linear TV solution.  Clients and agencies are very engaged – they recognize these are the early days of data, and that partner oriented development and innovation is critical.  But most importantly, they are excited to work with us to bring the power of data to the premium tier of the video marketplace.

Tom Ziangus (SVP Research and Insights, AMC Networks): I believe we are exposing our data abilities to agency & advertisers, but as is the case with all industry efforts with data driven sales & buying, everyone has their own “black box”/”secret sauce” so it makes it difficult to impact the overall marketplace.  Internally this initiative is creating time efficiencies that are leading our smartest research folks to shift the balance of their time to more insights to drive our business.

Hanna Gryncwajg (SVP Sales, RLTV): With all of these data announcements I am concerned about the ability of independent long tail cable networks to compete in the market. It is likely that these smaller networks would have financial limitations as well as limited access to data and are therefore at a disadvantage in showcasing the uniqueness and value of their audiences. The hyperbole behind all of these data-oriented announcements could negatively impact our business.

Part 3, to be published next week, asks the question - Is your company's data initiative scalable and if so, how?

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

Ovation - America's Only Arts Network

Bank clerk T.S. Eliot wrote poetry at night. There are many of us who, like Elliot, “bleed between two lives”; left brain by day, right brain by night. But then there are those fortunate people at Ovation who are surrounded by art as part of their corporate experience every day.

Ovation, in a soft re-launch, is emerging to be the one media company that recognizes that art is everywhere. Their embrace of the arts – whether that means ballet, opera, street art, food, tattoo, home design, fashion, literature or cinema – marks them as America’s only true art network. When you think of it, “art networks” have preceded Ovation but they eventually decide to mainstream out of the arts – A&E and Bravo are two examples. But thankfully Ovation not only keeps the creative flame burning, it is embracing arts programming with advocacy and cause based marketing efforts.

Chief Creative Officer Rob Weiss presented at Ovation’s press upfront at Jazz Lincoln Center giving an exciting overview of where the network is headed in 2013 and 2014. The network unveiled nine new original series scheduled to premiere in 2013 and revealed its 2014 development slate, consisting of 16 additional series. Here is a link to some of the exciting programming coming up for next season.

Ovation is committed to Arts Advocacy through Cable in the Classroom, work with the NEA and arts educators across the nation.  And it accentuates the Power of Art through it programming, outreach, community and a wider digital presence that expands the definition of art to make it more inclusive and global. They have created their own in-house production facility to keep the brand consistent and focused. Art even jumps off the media platform with This Week’s Wall where artists will be invited to Ovation’s LA offices to transform the office walls with their art.  

Obviously a dedication to the arts pays off. Ovation as a 45 million home network is one of the fastest growing cable networks in audience delivery with +20% year to year compared to +12% for other mid-tier networks and -1% for the larger cable networks. It’s commitment to digital includes an already thriving artist community containing over 200k art pieces (including some of mine), a YouTube channel, Twitter’s #OvationTV, 2.5 million viewers choice votes on Facebook and a presence on Instagram, Pinterest and Viggle. The executive suite at Ovation is justifiably excited. 

Both high and low art can be presented in a contemporary fresh and exciting way for today’s media enthusiasts. Indeed, art is the economic driver of cities, the secret sauce for student success and the inspiration for a myriad of global problem solving. Ovation, with its commitment to arts programming, content, advocacy and outreach is one of the truly unique networks in the media space today. Advertisers (and Time Warner) take note.