OpenAP Unveiled

It takes some doing to keep a secret like this. For close to one year, Viacom, Turner and Fox have been working together to build a three-corporation consortium for accepting third and first party datasets for use as guidance in the sales marketplace. They announced their joint effort this past week in New York City to an audience of advertisers, clients, suppliers and press.

OpenAP Announcement

“This is a historical day for all, of us,” announced Donna Speciale, President Turner Ad Sales. “We three (Turner, Viacom and Fox) are all here together. It has been a year in the making.” And referring to the high level agency executives in the crowd, she added, “We came together because of all of you. You were the catalyst, asking us to get together to unify and make data more scalable. We listened and are making it happen.”

The OpenAp was designed to address the many concerns in the media marketplace regarding data. “Despite all of the value that data provides, we still hear same concerns and that is that it is complicated, not scalable, there is a lack of auditing and it is not consistent. We needed to simplify audience targeting. It sounds simple but it is not an easy task,” noted Speciale.

What is also not an easy task is bringing together and coordinating the efforts of three highly competitive corporations and keeping these efforts under wraps for so long. “It’s crazy that we could keep it quiet,” stated Sean Moran, Head of Sales, VIACOM Media Networks.

OpenAP Interface

For those of us working with data, OpenAp is a tremendous step forward in beginning to address some of the challenges in the media marketplace from walled gardens, to scalability and accreditation.

Bryson Gordon, EVP Data Strategy, Viacom, explained that OpenAP has two separate pathways to access the audience data and see how the contract is posting. The first pathway is a website. “If you work for an agency or an advertiser, you will have a login to this website,” he explained, “Through that website you will be able to explore advanced audience and onboard your own advanced audiences and you will be able to pull down the post from the campaign across inventory from Fox, Viacom and Turner and any other member publisher that has joined.” The second pathway offers a way to onboard custom datasets that might be proprietary to the agency or advertiser. “We recognize that agencies and advertisers have made huge investments in defining audiences in proprietary data systems, through DMPs. So it is critical that we make it easy and seamless for you to have clean pathways into and out of OpenAP,” Gordon added.

OpenAP Details

OpenAP address some of the marketplace challenges. With normalization, scalability and accreditation, the consortium hired Accenture to manage those tasks. “Accenture is doing the build and the auditing of the measurement,” according to Joe Marchese, President of Advanced Advertising Products, Fox Network. Notably, Accenture is the company who jumped in to fix the Affordable Care website after it first crashed and now handles many of the health exchanges across the country. They are adept at managing vast amounts of data, normalizing it and keeping the data quality consistent and high. 

When it comes to the data sets, “We are data agnostic,” explained, Gordon, “At the end of the day, OpenAP is about supporting all the datasets that advertisers need to create the high value segments they want to target.” To start, OpenAP is working with two major data source ecosystems – “comScore for all of the set top box data and the associated third party syndicated datasets that they have,” he added, and “Nielsen as a key part of this initiative.”  In a press release that came directly after the OpenAP announcement, Lynda Clarizio, Nielsen’s President of U.S. Media, stated, “We support the consortium’s ambitions to create a clearinghouse for audience-based buying on linear television. We look forward to working with the participating networks and advertisers on the broader success of this initiative.”

When it comes to consistency, Gordon said, “Consistency is about have the same segments for all publishers making it easy to activate at scale. You can go find an advanced audience, have it consistently defined, have it activated across most of television in premium content that is absolutely brand safe. It’s about on-boarding once and activing again and again.”

Working Together for a Common Cause

How can you get three major competing corporations to work together for a common cause? “We all experienced a very similar pain, in talking to our agencies and clients who were all buying Fox, Turner and Viacom,” said Michael Strober, EVP Client Strategy and Ad Innovation, Turner and co-head of Turner Ignite, who added, ”How do we make it easier to buy and transact on a larger scale? We had open and honest conversations – are you experiencing the same thing? We met with Kern Schireson, Chief Data Officer, Viacom. I sat with Joe Marchese. We decided that nobody is going to do this for us. We needed to find the solution and do it ourselves. It was very organic and a response to the market.”

This is a big first step for OpenAP. As Marchese noted, “This is step one - live linear television. What comes next are dynamic advertising and VOD environments.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

24-Hour TV Advertising: Finding the Right Place and the Right Time for Your Campaign

For those of us who are old enough to remember end-of-broadcasting-day test patterns, today’s 24-hour TV may seem like overkill. But the new never-ending schedule poses both opportunity and dilemma.

Programming genres that were once coalesced into specific parts of the day (such as Saturday-morning cartoons) can now be viewed 24 hours a day, any day of the week. Primetime traditionally was the slot with the highest-quality programming because it garnered the most view and commanded the highest cost per impression (CPM). But now, high-quality programs can be viewed at any time and in any place.

Today’s viewing patterns are very often time-shifted. For advertisers interested in reaching a specific consumer, what was once a relatively clear choice of inventory has become a much more expansive, sophisticated, and complicated playing field. So how does 24-hour TV programming affect advertising schedules? And how can advertisers maximize budgets while still reaching the right consumers?

Avoid Clutter

Commercial pod length and the frequency of pods can reduce viewer engagement and attention. “I think everyone would agree that if you look at the amount of commercials that are inside most programs today, we have really overstuffed the bird,” admitted Michael Strober, EVP client strategy and ad innovation and co-head of Turner Ignite.

Advertising messages get lost in the clutter, savvy advertisers seek not only the right programming, but less cluttered programming, too. Even many TV networks realize the negative impact of clutter and are making efforts to reduce it. “Lighter commercial loads are the right balance,” Strober concluded.

Read the full article on the Videa blog.

The Great Big Story of the NewFronts

Somewhere in the dark cavernous hall of Houston Hall in NYC there lies the Great Big Story of the NewFronts.  This past week, Turner invited advertisers to explore their newest initiative – a digital nonfiction-based programming network geared towards a young, socially engaged digital audience.  “Great Big Story is a content initiative that is underwritten by CNN but serves as a standalone company,” stated Michael Strober, EVP Client Strategy and Ad Innovation Turner Ad Sales. “It is a distinct brand to provide another way to connect to audiences,” he added.   

Launched in October 2015, Great Big Story is essentially a digitally based content provider that offers a range of native content mixed with originally produced programming. This formula appears to be very successful. According to David Spiegel, SVP Sales and Brand Strategy, GBS, the network “exceeded its entire 2016 audience and engagement metric goals within the first six weeks of its launch.”  “It is a new brand,” he continued, “going in a new direction with nonfiction storytelling that is playful and smart. We want to be the global home of curiosity.”

Great Big Story was also touted as being a place where advertisers can immerse their messages in native produced content. Spiegel explained, “We work with partners to create integrated branded content with clear attribution that is mixed in with our programming feed. We publish 3 to 5 videos a day in TV quality production that has an international reach in twenty-eight countries. It is all nonfiction with a human element that includes brands in the programming stream.” 

The programming is distributed through apps and across the internet where viewers can follow via social media. GBS is also offered on a network of portals and streaming platforms. In short, the network is pervasively digital with the capability of extending into television should an advertiser want to go first screen.

Jeff Zucker, President of CNN Worldwide, introduced the network by stating that the Great Big Story “was a start-up with a head start. It benefits from CNN’s reach and access and the power of Turner with branded solutions.” 

The delivery results so far show a promising future. The network has so far attracted 6.2 million multi-platform fans with an average age of 27 years old, equally divided between male and female. In addition there are 730,000 average views per video, 22,000 shares, likes or comments per video with an average app session of three or more minutes. Eighty percent are viewed on mobile.  And programming is not limited to just Great Big Story. Trans-network partnerships are also in the works. Zucker also announced an eight-part series called That’s Amazing for the Weather Channel which will also include related short form content on GBS. 

The world of content continues to grow and morph. Great Big Story appears to be on the cutting edge of great big content creation and distribution.

This article forst appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

CIMM Continues to Pave the Way for Cross Platform Measurement

CIMM, The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, hosted its 5^th Annual Cross Platform Media Measurement and Data Summit last week. The organization has accomplished a lot in the past five years. 

Jane Clarke, CEO and Managing Director, outlined CIMM’s mission which is to “foster innovation in cross platform measurement, bring more granular measurement to TV and look at measurement in new ways. We pilot test new measurement tools to meet the needs of users. It has been a multi-year effort of working together to drive change in media measurement.” 

Goals and Actions For Cross Platform Measurement

CIMM seeks to establish a clear understanding of consumer centric usage across all platforms, to measure exposure by pilot testing touchpoints and to evaluate the results. “Enriching media data quality is the key to ROI and data quality is increasingly important for enhancing the buying currency. CIMM is advocating for more passive measurement at scale, linking census based with shopping behavior,” Clarke stated as she announced a Measurement Manifesto that has three goals and eight actions.

The “must haves” for cross platform media measurement are:

      

       --Accurate representation of cross device universe at scale to use advanced audience segments.

Ø        --An efficient supply chain to real time, with timing comparable to digital.

Ø        --Comparable metrics across platforms with a standard video to average minute to measure ads.

The Actions taken to achieve these goals are:

Ø        -- Embrace competition.

Ø       --  MRC standards.

Ø       --    Move beyond panels, embrace big data and move to census measurements in TV and digital.

Ø       --  Bring more return path data to market for planning. Nationally represent SmartTV and STB data.

Ø       --Measure Out of Home in the ratings. Measure across all possible media points.

Ø       --  Measure both households and individuals.

Ø        -- Implement standardized metadata for content and ads.

Ø       --Demand transparency from 3rd party data companies, linking IDs across devices and channels.

The Impact of Data

Artie Bulgrin, SVP Global Research & Analytics, ESPN, moderated the first panel on Cross Media and Data and asked his panel whether we will see a move away from age and gender demos in buying and selling media across platforms. Michael Strober, in a new role as EVP Client Strategy and Ad Innovation, Turner, replied, “Currently there is too much of the business activating on age and gender.” But, he added, “We are working towards a variety of measurements.” Michael Piner, SVP Investment, MAGNA GLOBAL, was more open to change and said, “We are working towards it. If we can use and overlay third party data, then we don't need (to buy on) age and gender.”

Data rules, according to the panel, whether first or third party. Benjamin Jankowski, Group Head, Global Media, MasterCard, explained, “We have our own data which drives quantitative actions. We can create segments - not individuals because of privacy. The qualitative side is more ahead of the curve. We use social listening to know people's interests.” Piner said, “We use a tremendous amount of big data, are incorporating it into the data stack and ingesting it into our planning system.”

Progress on Cross Platform Measurement

Alan Wurtzel, President, Research & Media Development moderated a panel of end users. When asked how they were using the data to facilitate cross platform measurement, Don Robert, EVP Research and Analytics, A+E Networks spoke of his company’s recent efforts. “We are monetizing cross platform effectively by examining how each platform looks when you take out the commercial units. We are looking at program impressions by duration using currency data based on impressions,” he explained.

However, data delivery lag is a challenge for an industry used to overnight ratings. Ed Gaffney, Managing Partner, Director of Tactical Planning, GroupM explained, “While problems can be solved by research and good quality data, there also needs to be good velocity. The data can’t be six months old. We need it now so we can see what lift we get.”  This means that, for the foreseeable future, the industry is expected to stick with the usual data suspects for upfront buying.  “Nielsen is currency,” Gaffney said, “That is where we are going to do business. We work with comScore (for digital) and Nielsen (for TV).” And yet it is still an open field for more competition In the future. “No one can crack it to everyone's satisfaction,” stated Gaffney, “We will spend the money (for more services). We won’t be happy about it but we will spend the money.”

Participate!

Collaboration is key and George Ivie, Executive Director and CEO, Media Ratings Council is leading the charge. “Accreditation is a difficult road,” he admits, “but we hope to be done with a cross media standard by the end of 2016.” The MRC standard to follow is the duration-weighted viewable impression filtered for non-fraudulent, valid, human traffic.

The most important thing is for all of us in all areas of the industry is to get involved and help facilitate standardize-able measurement solutions. Ivie concluded with a plea. “Participate!” he said.

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com