The Update on Advanced Advertising

They say that the more things change the more they stay the same. The recent Advanced Advertising Summit this past week was notable in that the issues facing the industry seem to remain the same year after year. 

But the good news is that the technology is advancing to a point where the ability to seamlessly integrate digital and linear is ever closer to launch. Another positive change, for me, is the presence of more and more research and data executives in attendance at these types of conferences. When I first attended these events, there were few of my research compatriots there. Now we are even on sales panels!

Challenges in Advanced Advertising

Irwin Gottlieb, Senior Advisor WPP, in his keynote, explained that while advanced advertising has been around for years, it is not scalable yet. It is “somewhat scalable today,” he averred, “there are two minutes an hour (available) in local but it is not scalable in terms of support systems or inventory.” On the bright side, according to Gottlieb, there are no technology obstacles because companies such as WPP made deep investments in tech years ago. But there continues to be business obstacles where short term thinking, intra company fiefdoms and local vs national interests have enabled digital to “eat TV’s lunch.”

Scaling from a test to a full buy is another aspect of scalability that brings pain to the industry. Dan Riess, Executive Vice President of Ignite, WarnerMedia, noted, “We can always get clients to start a test but have find ways to scale that will trigger the technology to make it happen.” As a stopgap, he starts manually “to see how it works,” but there are, “so many different datasets, for example, that make it hard to scale.” Ultimately, we “need to move faster.”

Legacy systems are another challenge. Mike Mayer, Executive Vice President Sales Solutions, NBCU, explained that they are taking a “one order one report approach,” but if the order trail takes them from a legacy to legacy system, the buy has to be put together later. “It’s complicated,” he admitted, and it “can’t change overnight.”

Add to this the issue of silos. “Walled gardens make it difficult to develop business,” stated Jennifer Koester, Director of Telco and Distribution Partnership, Google. The solution is, “more standard segments,” noted Maureen Bosetti, Chief Investment Officer, Initiative, who added, “how it is being measured, more standardization and a privacy standard on identification,” with full compliance.

Positives in Advanced Advertising

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Many aspects of advanced advertising are hugely successful, offering manifold opportunities for both digital and television. Although linear TV is declining in usage, TV as a whole is adapting well to this multi-platform, advanced advertising ecosystem. Jason Brown, Senior Vice President, Head of Ad Sales partnerships, Xandr Media, finds that granular data enables us to “reach micro segments,” where the result is that “many advertisers are moving up the funnel,” and “TV is now full funnel for purchases, depending on the category.” This has resulted in “price hikes well beyond inflation.”

If there is one thing that TV does well, it is storytelling. Paul Alfieri, Chief Marketing Officer, Cadent, explained. Within the realm of advanced advertising, “a marketer can tell their story to consumers where they are and when they want. Is it seamless and we close the loop.” TV, according to Alfieri is learning from digital. “The industry has simplified it into one funnel and advertising is getting more sophisticated. It’s happening quickly because of paradigms you have in digital,” he stated.

No one is complacent. Many companies are creating their own systems that address advanced advertising like NBCU’s CFlight which, according to Mayer, “combines linear with digital impressions and sells deal with total impressions.” Others are joining consortiums like Vizio’s Project OAR, which stands for Open Addressable Ready. Project OAR includes Disney’s Media Networks, Turner, Xandr, Comcast’s FreeWheel and NBC Universal, CBS, Discovery, Hearst Television, AMC Networks and Inscape with the goal to define technical standards for linear and on-demand formats on smart TVs.

Jonathan Steuer, Chief Research Officer, Omnicom Media Group, recommended, a “focused on education on both the strategy and investment side.” He sees a big shift from linear TV to a more expansive view of TV in the digital space where we, “can use same strategic targets.”

Conclusion

So, yes, there are still vexing challenges in getting advanced advertising to scale, especially in national inventory, and we still need to agree on standards for measurement, segments and protocols. But the industry is hyper-focused on these addressing issues, often working together and always committed to progress.  That might be the greatest positive of them all.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

When Agencies Predict the Ad Market: MediaPost’s Outfront Forum

As a strategist myself, I’m finding that it’s becoming harder and harder to predict the industry even five years out. 

So it was with great interest that I attended MediaPost’s Outfront Forum, where agencies debated the future of the upcoming upfronts, as well as what the upfront might look like five years from now.

Upfronts 2018-2019

There are some topics that seem to swirl through the media ecosystem in waves. This year it’s blockchain, the advanced advertising platform OpenAP, and the reduced ad load on certain networks, which might lead to increased pricing. Panelists prognosticating on the next few months were concerned about how pricing would impact their buys, though they understood the need to reduce clutter in order to improve viewer engagement and attention.

“I support the fact that we live in fragmented world,” stated Maureen Bosetti, chief investment officer at Initiative. “The networks are trying to create a more engaging ad experience and increase attention. They created a world with more clutter and are now trying to pull back.”

Read the full article on the Videa blog.

A Look at the Upfront Now and in the Future.

The upfront is just getting started and already there are prognosticators reporting that the decline in revenue will continue from last year. Wayne Friedman, Mediapost West Coast Editor, who moderated the first panel at the recent Outfront, wondered “whether or not we are in a new upfront paradigm. Are we on verge of perhaps two consecutive upfronts where there has been declining volume? In the past 25 years only four seasons had spending declines. Each one rebounded the following year.’ 

But what about this year? Will the declines continue and if so, what does that mean for the business? It seems to me that it all comes down to consumer behavior and fragmentation of platforms. If devices continue to offer consumers more on-demand content choices and the television technology – VOD, connected TV, OTT - continues to increase in both distribution and adoption, the business opportunity for selling traditional television in the old upfront model will inevitably shrink and need to change to a model that fully captures cross platform and digital …. in as close to real time as possible. That means currency cross platform measurement, dynamic ad insertion and maybe real time bidding. This could keep a traditional media executive awake at night.

Friedman asked each of his panelists what discussions they were having with their clients. Helen Giles, Director National Broadcast and Video Integration at Lowe Campbell Ewald said, “We look at look at individual client needs and where the audience is.” Chris Geraci, President National Broadcast Investment at OMD agreed, “We always start with the clients. We look at media as video and have an agnostic approach to it. Video is now consumed on more diverse array of platforms than ever before.” 

Some were weighing the value of buying in the upfront.  “What if I didn't do the upfront?” said Jason Kanefsky, EVP Strategic Investments for Havas Media, “We have this discussion at Havas. What is my ceiling for price and what is my alternative? It used to be the idea of the fear of being shut out. And that fear is what has driven the market. Fragmentation makes us less fearful.” Maureen Bosetti, EVP Group Director National Broadcast and NY Operations for Optimedia posited, “What is the value we can yield from the upfront? Is it the best programming and the flexibility? Why are we in the upfront?” And Gibbs Haljun, Managing Director Media Investment for GroupM noted that, “The upfronts is the futures market. It depends on what are we doing from a brand and client perspective. Many investments are being done closer to lead time. But it is based on individual clients.”

That is now. Looking forward five years to Upfront 2019-2020 and there was little consensus as to what to expect. Barry Lowenthal, President of Media Kitchen, see programmatic as the future. “We have been bullish on programmatic and took back from our trading desk to do programmatic all by ourselves. It is the very center of what we do. The best insights come from data driven media buying.” However Kris Magel, Chief Investment Officer, Initiative is less convinced. He said, “Programmatic is overused.” And Adam Kasper, Chief Media Officer, Havas Media sees a sea change going forward. “It is incrementally different this year. We are shifting from traditional to digital and it is an important shift. Are upfront commitments necessary? I am not sure it will be I existence in five years. Maybe we will go directly to content creators.” Kasper also saw, a “revolution coming in the measurement space.”

It is difficult to make any forecast in this turgid media environment but if agency executives are questioning the future of Upfront as we know it, it is certain to change in a meaningful way. As Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief for Mediapost said, “We have reached an inflection point where things really are different.” How different still remains to be seen. Stay tuned.

Thsi article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Simulmedia's Happy Hour Salons

There are a number of excellent industry get-togethers but there is only one that I can think of that blends the actual happy hour with the program itself. It is Simulmedia’s Happy Hour Salon which is a provocative speaker series that gives media and tech people the chance to mingle and share opinions on a trending industry hot topic, all over a pint of beer or a glass of wine.

I sat down with Simulmedia CEO Dave Morgan to talk about the salon: 

This salon series is relatively new but past speakers have included a range of experts from author Eric Asimov discussing wine to Nielsen’s Steve Hasker and Optimedia’s Maureen Bosetti discussing the changing media landscape. Dave Morgan believes that there is inevitable change coming into the industry that can be framed and guided by active, engaged thought leaders. By providing a place where the exchange of ideas can germinate, Simulmedia hopes to spur discussion and help move progressive change forward.

Steve Hasker spoke frankly about Nelsen’s strengths and weaknesses. According to Hasker, the Nielsen panel wasn’t working because the market has changed. When the panel was first created, television was a “must have” and there was no need for television executives to seek ROI. Now both buyers and sellers come to Nielsen for help in optimizing their media mix. While stating that Nielsen is the center of the media trade currency, he also admitted that there are times when Nielsen gets things wrong and that some of their products are not up to snuff. But, he asserted, “We get fewer things wrong every day.” To those who know Nielsen, this refreshing piece of humility led some to say that this was the most “un-Nielsen Nielsen talk” they had ever heard, according to Dave Morgan.

Maureen Bosetti of Optimedia spoke about how the digital world is placing more pressure on the media business from agency clients. Digital, she explained, has brought more accountability to the marketplace and that places more pressure on television to become more accountable too.  Agencies must become less siloed and more involved in social media metrics and measurement that help to ascertain ROI. Her wish list includes better cross platform analytics and metrics, perhaps a seamless measurement of reach across all platforms and consistent measurement as the industry continues to fragment. She summed it up by saying, “the future of media is Math Men not Mad Men.” I agree….

An investor panel in January included Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures, Linda Gridley of Gridley & Company, Sheila Spence of WPP Group and Tim Spengler of Magna Global. They spoke about innovating the future of media and advertising stressing the value of companies that provide an emotional experience. But the measurement sector is still fairly static. Their conclusion - Even though Nielsen has more challenges to its business model than usual, there is still no other company in the marketplace that can match to the individual level. The group predicted tremendous disruption in the next 18 months especially in the payment sector as digital wallets continue to innovate.

These salons tend to be digitally centric, according to Dave Morgan, but there are enough audience and participants in the television, agency, supplier, pundits and analyst side that make for a rich experience.

Indeed, there are few places where you can hear a Nielsen mea-culpa and an Asimov wine lesson while sipping a beer. The salon takes place one a month and is by invitation only, but it is easy to get on the list by emailing HappyHour@simulmedia.com

Interview conducted by Charlene Weisler, Weisler Media LLC. She can be reached through her research blog www.WeislerMedia.blogspot.com or at WeislerMedia@yahoo.com. Twitter: www.twitter.com/weislermedia