Advancing Advanced Advertising. An Interview with Tripp Boyle of Connekt

The world of advanced advertising continues to innovate. Take the example of Connekt which makes use of A.I. to dynamically insert interactive advertising in content and synchronize with T-commerce and E-commerce. As linear TV moves onto the IP, this form of advertising is poised to become more pervasive. Tripp Boyle, SVP Sales Strategy and Business Development, is not only leveraging A.I. in advertising. His company is also offering the first-ever voice activated, national TV ad campaign which was recently showcased at CES. 

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of advanced TV?

Tripp Boyle: Advanced TV is what defines today’s TV ecosystem.  The proliferation of connected smart TV devices (now active in 74% of US TV households) be it through HD streaming content, TV everywhere technology, the advent of t-commerce, addressable linear and VOD opportunities and more means that TV is more advanced than ever and will continue to evolve.

Weisler: What do you see as its greatest opportunities and challenges in advanced TV in 2019?

Boyle: TV data has remained largely untapped due to insufficient and unproven technology that has had difficulty scaling across providers.  Brands are still reliant on TV for reach and have built proven models that show it works, which why we’ll never see the switch flip overnight.  Connekt is building technology, integrated at the smart device level that’s allowing advertisers to leverage both front and back end data to deliver smarter experiences within linear TV. 

Advanced TVs biggest challenge remains device and platform fragmentation.  It’s not a simple task to unite an ecosystem whose technological backbone is housed within OEMs that have historically battled each other for market share.  Add to this MVPDs and MSOs who are also looking for new and enhanced revenue streams and it’s hard to get everyone to see eye to eye on a unified solution rather than build or buy their own and scale only among their user base.

Weisler: What are the most critical data points in advanced advertising?

Boyle: Factors vary campaign to campaign.  Right now in Advanced TV advertising, we’re seeing data like location, HH demographics, and context bubble to the surface in terms of activation prioritization.  Enabling dynamic local messaging on top of national ad spots, highlighting different products from the same brand depending on household profile or keying in on a specific offer tied to a precise moment on the television within ads or programming are some of the most common use cases.

Weisler: Describe your solutions for an ecommerce project.

Boyle: Our ecommerce solution is an outsourced, multi-channel, white label storefront that offers  clients a new channel of revenue without the traditional funds and manpower needed to set up an internal site.  Connekt handles the back-end technology, product development, merchandising, marketing, fulfillment of orders and customer service. For example, we recently announced the launch ShopABCTV.com. 

With our ongoing partnership with ABC, Connekt’s platform supports every aspect of the network’s ShopABCTV.com by managing site hosting and web development. We also create official brand gear for its franchises, including apparel, drinkware, home goods and collectibles. Once a viewer purchases a product, Connekt then fulfills the order, ensuring that the item is processed and delivered, and all customer service inquiries are met. Connekt is introducing a future where viewers will be able to purchase items with their remote or voice through our owned and operated ShopTV smart TV application, which is currently available on Sony, LG and Hisense smart TVs. 

Weisler: Can you talk a little bit about your recent patent? 

Boyle: Our patented technology gives audiences the ability to interact with, research and purchase items viewed on TV and video, in real-time.  When an ad is displayed on screen, viewers can purchase directly through a wide array of devices, such as remote controls, phones and voice-activated assistants. 

Weisler: How real time is your realtime?

Boyle: On linear TV our technology reacts to what is on the screen within milliseconds to deliver the right message, at a precise moment.  On the data side, we’re returning viewership and engagement data at the network, program, state, DMA, daypart, and hour levels within 24 hours of delivery.

Weisler: Do you collect data? If so, how do you use it?

Boyle: The non-PII data that we gather is centered on viewership, attention, and engagement at the device level.  Our data helps identify who’s watching, what content, for how long, on what networks, and who’s engaging, at what time, to understand who is most receptive to a message.  We share that anonymized data back to our advertising partners to help as a planning tool, we also build audience segments around that data.

Weisler: In the span of your career what has most surprised you?

Boyle: It is the growth curve we’ve seen with mobile commerce.  It seems intuitive now, given how capable smartphones are and how easy it is for a new device to make us forget the previous version, but mobile e-commerce is projected (eMarketer) to make up half of all e-commerce next year, or roughly $319B. In 2009, it was at just north of $1B.  Take a second to reflect on what your response would have been 10 years ago if someone asked you if you purchase laundry detergent on your mobile phone.  Now we’re setting up automatic re-orders via our smartphones on all kinds of CPG goods and doing much of our holiday shopping via mobile as well.  

Weisler: What are your overall predictions for the state of the media industry 3-5 years from now.

Boyle: The roll out of 5G services and the host of benefits that will come with exponentially faster internet connection.  Overall, continued convergence is going to significantly re-shape the media landscape and drive how, and through whom, we access what content we watch/listen to.  Sports rights will continue to evolve and it will be interesting to see how that impacts traditional cable service subscriptions now that you have social networks, TV companies, and streaming services competing.  I think the networks are too big in the foreseeable future to lose much ground on sports but it will be interesting to see how those rights deals are structured.  Terrestrial radio, digital radio, and podcasted content are also at a bit of a crossroads and I’m sure we’ll see some convergence there with a few big players making moves to stay ahead.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Top 7 Ad Selling Points for Premium TV

What do we really mean by premium TV? For some, it’s a tiered linear TV service that requires a subscription, such as HBO and Showtime. For others, the definition has expanded to include packages of channels offered by multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and over-the-top (OTT) companies like Apple.

So, it seems that for those in the business of selling television, “premium” is in the eye of the beholder.

What Sellers Need to Know

Adam Gerber, senior vice president of investment for North America at media-buying agency Essence, reflected on the current status of premium TV in a recent Adweek article. According to Gerber, “premium” is an overused term, and he concluded that “premium content is what works best for the marketer.”

Read the full article on the Videa blog.

Kern Schireson Talks About Viacom’s Data Strategy at the Data Summit

Media's data dash is ramping up as evidenced by the discussions at the recent Data Summit conference. Whereas it had been a tough and arduous sell in to use targeted data in selling TV content several years ago, the technology and business models have improved to such a degree that media executives view using targeted data against consumer segments as part of business as usual now.

Kern Schireson, Chief Data Officer, Viacom presented his vision of data, how it is fully integrated within his company, how they position it to advertisers and brands and how it will play out in the media business marketplace. 

Chief Data Officer Responsibilities

His is a relatively new title in media world and his efforts have become integral to creating new strategic insights for his company. “What Viacom realized is that there are interesting opportunities at intersection between data and sales,” he explained. “There are opportunities to connect the dots and uncover new value and optimize the business.”

His work with data requires complex math, machine learning and algorithms that help the business react more efficiently. And it requires getting deep into the details of how the media business functions while trying to connect it to advertisers and brands in a new way. “It’s all about inter-operability and building the pipes,” he noted, “Because the rise of data can bring more intelligence into the business it opens doors between the siloed areas. It offers new ways of thinking about the business from the processing aspect.”

Getting MVPD Data

Viacom recently announced a deal with Charter for their data which offers an opportunity for the two companies to work together. This partnership can enable a new way of thinking between MVPDs and media companies. Shireson explained that, “There are things that MVPDs do well and there are things on the publisher side that are unique and valuable. In the past this was treated as a zero sum game. We are now working as partners to make the TV ecosystem bigger and better positioned for the future.” Viacom’s goal is to maximize viewership and be able to monetize it. “We need traditional TV to be smarter and work across the aisle to leverage the best data and methodologies.

Explaining the Value of Data Within Viacom

In any company, even within the most progressive ones, there can be a divide between those who have worked in television for a long time and those who are coming in with fresh perspectives but little TV experience. “I do think there is still this learning curve when and where to use data scientists,” Shireson confessed. There was a concern that robots would come in and tell veteran programmers what programs to run. But, he assured the audience, “that is not what we are aiming at.”

Instead, he feels that his role is to offer tools and new capabilities to help that person maximize their instincts and leverage their intelligence and creativity. “It is not about us replacing you with a machine but giving you an iron man suit,” he assured. “These are just tools that offer predictive algorithms to better estimate show performance and estimate sales impressions. It gives you something to bounce your other estimates against so you can say, ‘Let's re-factor these other conditions and streamline the process. We are trying to be additive rather than a replacement.” The intent is that, over time, it is possible to get to a place where the business is run more efficiently. “It is a collaboration to make the business better,” he concluded.

And all of this data is not just useful for sales. Shierson’s data empire can be used for the creative discipline of programming.  We can use data to discover, “what are topics out there and how can we understand the zeitgeist,” he noted. “What are the trends in culture, what are the patterns of viewership in different parts of the day?”  The data can now be used to support a decision, knowing that the media ecosystem is a much more dynamic environment than ever before. More multiplatform programming creates a real time cultural experience, especially with much of Viacom properties’ audiences.

All in all, data provides a huge area of opportunity. “We need to reframe the conversation so that everyone is doing better and delivering a better product,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

What Is the Future of Pay TV?

What do we really mean when we say “pay TV”? To some, it means programming or networks that are commercial-free, available on any platform, and require the viewer to pay a fee. To others, it includes ad-supported TV channels offered through a multi-channel video program distributor (MVPD). It might also include newer innovations like video-on-demand (VOD) and streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) programming as part of a subscription service.

In sum, pay TV is evolving into an amalgam of networks and services that are typically supported by ads or subscriptions, and its definition keeps changing as technology and access to content expands. The generally accepted definition, however, comes from the Television Bureau of Advertising: “Home television programming for which the viewer pays by the program or by the month. Pay television includes both over-the-air transmission (with scrambled signals) and cable transmission (pay cable).”

A Downward Trend

Read the full article on the Videa blog.

PROPHET-izing the World of Data. Interview with Ashley Swartz, CEO of Furious

Ashley Swartz, CEO of Furious, started her career in manufacturing finance in enterprise and supply chain optimization software. But in this world of Iot, she was able to move into the manufacturing or products and mobile phones as a first introduction to mobile content and advertising. “I started my own agency in 2003 and then moved over to consult for the sell side of MVPDS, publishers and technology providers,” she explained, before founding Furious Corp in 2013 and building our platform which we call PROPHET. PROPHET connects and normalizes data from over 40 disparate advertising systems to report, forecast and optimize inventory and revenue across all sales channels and ad formats.

Charlene Weisler: How did you choose the name Furious?

Ashley Swartz: My nickname given to me by Matt Seiler when I worked for him years ago is Red Fury so I decided to name my company Furious. Matt Seiler, was CEO of PHD US when I worked for him and met him and most recently he was CEO and Chairman at Mediabrands.

Charlene Weisler: What MVPDs did you work for and what data did they use at that time on the sell side?

Ashley Swartz: I previously worked for Intel's On Cue platform, and we are currently working with multiple MVPDs today at Furious Corp. The datasets vary based on whether it is linear, linear addressable or digital. It included various 1st party data, set top box data, Nielsen data, Rentrak, 3rd party data including meta data, targeting data, etc. And, IF they had a DMP they might have ACR data (if needed) and or video player data.

Charlene Weisler: Tell me more about how the Furious platform works.

Ashley Swartz:  Furious' platform, PROPHET, is a horizontal platform that connects all the disparate advertising systems for a seller, automating the ingestion and cleansing of data to enable [near] real time reporting across all inventory, revenue (price) and audience for all platforms.  Its primary value as an enterprise system is in using this data to optimize yield at a portfolio level to maximize revenue and efficiency. It is powered by the most advanced state of the art optimization and forecasting algorithms known in the Data Science industry and we enhance them using domain specific knowledge of the media space and client specific data, thus creating best of breed adaptive and robust algorithms which present unprecedented accuracy and reliability. This is what powers PROPHET's forecasting, planning, pricing, allocation and optimization.

Charlene Weisler: Who is your competitive set?

Ashley Swartz: SAP, Freewheel, IBM and Accenture

Charlene Weisler: What other industries do you incorporate and what are their best practices that work in media?

Ashley Swartz: PROPHET leverages lessons learned from other large industries who have used Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software like SAP to connect their business, automate workflow, increase yield and productivity, as well as finance portfolio management tools to manage a mix of assets, optimize and rebalance portfolios over time. PROPHET utilizes methodologies from manufacturing, like Kaizen (continuous improvement) in its business logic using machine learning to power its self-correcting predictive and optimization algorithms.

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of programmatic?

Ashley Swartz: The use of data or technology to improve the ROI on media.

Charlene Weisler: What do you think the impact of smart TVs will have on TV sales, content and measurement.

Ashley Swartz: In the short term, very little. As the owners of smart TVs begin to be more representative of a population, more valuable. We still have immense privacy issues to overcome to make the data actionable, and OEMS have a long way to go in ensuring the integrity of the data and establishing a realistic perspective on fair market value of the data.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

CIMM STB Roadmap Whitepaper

CIMM (The Committee For Innovative Media Measurement) has just released the results of an extensive study on the Set Top Box data landscape. I have had the privilege of participating in the collection of the data with Managing Director Jane Clarke and then of compiling the results and writing the resulting whitepaper.

The CIMM STB Data Roadmap Whitepaper is the next step after the CIMM STB Data Lexicon of Terms and Defintions. CIMM's intent with the whitepaper was to explore the current state of STB data as it applies to understanding its strengths and weaknesses for a wide range of applications. Included in the analysis are feedback and insights from a range of constituents from data originators to data processors to software vendors to end users at advertising agencies and content providers as well as other interested parties such as media industry organizations.

The whitepaper – which summarizes and analyzes the results of the study - is arguably the only complete, holistic appraisal of the STB landscape available today. We reached out to all sectors of the industry – all those who touch and are touched by the data. The level of cooperation and the comfort that executives from across the spectrum had with the process is a testament to CIMM’s position in the industry as an unbiased coalition of the end users of media data.

In addition to an industry overview, a goal of the project was to prioritize an industry road map for the development STB data for a variety of uses such as use by the MVPDs (Multi-Channel Video Program Distributors) for marketing and carriage negotiations, granular analyses of programming and advertising, enabling various forms of segmented or addressable advertising or spending on television promotions, matching with outside databases to enable media buying ROI analyses and development of an audit-ready local or national measurement product, all while operating in a construct that does not violate consumer privacy laws. This whitepaper offers insights into the advantages and challenges of the data with suggestions for a workable STB measurement model to which media companies – from programmers to marketers to agencies - may support and subscribe.

Please click here for a PDF version of the CIMM STB Data Roadmap Whitepaper.