Joining Forces to Create Addressable Measurement Standards

Cross MediaWorks, parent company of Cadent, one2one Media and TCA, is partnering with TV data analytics firm, 605, to advance addressable by creating a new measurement standard. Not only will this effort promise to scale the addressable television marketplace, it will also create an independent, third party verification of performance to standardize impressions - based television campaigns and actionable insights.

Nick Troiano, Chief Executive Officer, Cross MediaWorks, and Ben Tatta, Co-Founder and President of 605, explained their joint vision and approach:

Charlene Weisler: What are the expectations from this partnership?

Nick Troiano: At Cross MediaWorks our main objective is to make it easy for TV buyers to understand and use Advanced TV solutions. Our new agreement with 605 will help us build a seamless solution to utilize important data and inventory providers in the Advanced TV space, making it easier for brand marketers to add targeting capabilities to their traditional TV buys. 605 has an expansive data portfolio that allows Cross MediaWorks clients to better target on TV.

Ben Tatta: This partnership centers on the development of a standardized approach to planning, measuring and optimizing audience-based ad campaigns on TV - executed on either an addressable or optimized-linear basis.

Weisler: What datasets are being used and how will they be integrated into Cadent’s business?

Troiano: We work with more than 200 MVPDs across the country and have access to more than 100 million TV households. The new solution with 605 allows our clients to home in on a specific target audience and go beyond simple segmentations, like age and gender, on a tremendous scale.

Tatta: Cross MediaWorks will leverage 605’s census-level viewership data, combined with a vast array of third-party audience attributes including both behavioral and transactional data-sets.

Weisler: Will it be guaranteed?

Troiano: We work with all our clients to make sure they reach their target audience and are happy with their campaign results, but do not offer specific guarantees.

Weisler: Any challenges in implementing the data?

Tatta: 605’s core data platform was designed to transform raw TV tuning records into refined, measurement-grade, match-able data. We’ve worked closely with Cross MediaWorks on the design and implementation of these new capabilities to ensure they can now take advantage of more robust data and measurement in a more seamless and scalable way.

Weisler: What are the next steps?

Troiano: Evangelizing and helping educate clients. The evolution of TV targeting is still fairly new, but is real and actionable today. We look forward to working with clients to help them reach their target audience at scale on TV.

Tatta: While the initial focus of the partnership is on the introduction of standardized planning and measurement for audience-based TV campaigns, the next phase will encompass more advanced campaign analytics, including brand and sales attribution, ROI analytics, etcetera.

Weisler: What have been the reactions from the clients? 

Troiano: Overwhelmingly positive – clients are excited to scale the business and really zero in on their target audience.

Tatta: This partnership was based solely on client and market demand for more robust targeting and measurement solutions for TV.

Weisler: Can you give an example of how it will be executed?

Troiano: I will provide you with an example of how we work with an Auto client – for both Cadent and one2one Media: With Cadent, we provide an efficient broad reach campaign on TV – then follow up in another campaign to target a specific audience of consumers who are looking to buy a car and target the specific days, times and networks that audience watches. With one2one Media using addressable advertising, we target specific households of that same audience with the same message. By utilizing 605 data we can create an independent, third-party verification of performance providing a standardization of an impressions-based television campaigns.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Where Do We Go With Programmatic? Experts Weigh in at the Addressable Advertising Conference

As the television ecosystem continues to evolve with ever increasing speed, it is difficult to keep up with not only all of the new advancements but also all of the conferences whose panels and speakers keep us up to date. This past week was the fourth annual NYC TV and Video week comprising of four major conferences that included a range of compelling speakers on topics from virtual reality, addressable advertising, data, diversity and programmatic. These series of events offered an up to date appraisal of where the media ecosystem is headed.

When it comes to programmatic, the conversation comprised of many of the issues that now face television in general. That is, the need for standardization (in the case of programmatic that means standard buying segments), a common language so that terms are clearly understood (the recently updated CIMM Lexicon addresses this issue) and the ability to get to scale cross-platform, especially with niche targets (there are no easy solutions as of yet and the landscape continues to change).

What are the pressing needs to move programmatic and addressable advertising forward?  Here are some takeaways:

Standards are Important … When we talk about creating standards, we need to specify the areas that benefit from standardization (such as terms and definitions) and those that can’t (such as CPMs and pricing). Eric Schmitt, EVP, Communications, TV & Media, Acxiom, noted that, “the lack of segmentation standards is the single biggest impediment in rolling programmatic TV out across the industry. How segments are defined is also a problem across advertisers. We are tackling this because we want segmentations to be actionable across industry.”

… But Not for Every Aspect of Programmatic or Addressable

But when it comes to pricing and CPMs, Nick Troiano, CEO, Cadent, stated, ”Audiences are different across MVPDs. New York is different than Iowa. Advertisers are used to buying across the nation but we price by specific markets, according to supply and demand.” And Maria Mandel Dunsche, VP, Head of Marketing, AT&T AdWorks, added, “Pricing depends on the category. The price for the initial buy could have a higher CPM than for a linear buy. But the effective CPM can wind up lower.” 

Scale Needs to Be Addressed

“Where does an addressable campaign fit in with the rest of the media?” asks Jonathan Bokor, SVP, Director of Advanced Media, MediaVest|Spark. He continued, “Standards are important. Do we base it on frequency or reach? We look at addressable as targeting. Scale is an issue.” Troiano explained that at Cadent, “We are placing media across platforms and work closely with our engineers to support addressable advertising. We recognize that, with any new medium, scale is fundamental. Fifty to 60 million homes are addressable today but they have different workflows. From a technological perspective, we unify and make it simple.

Walled Gardens Have to Come Down

The walled gardens that exist across MVPDs, content owners such as networks and agencies are preventing the easy access, execution and calculation of addressable campaigns. As long as they exist, this will stunt growth. “The siloed and walled gardens that exist today have to come down,” stated Troiano. “We need to be able to execute campaign across operators. Until there are mechanisms for agencies or buyers to execute across operators, we won't get out of the small end of the funnel,” he added.

Everything takes time and the media ecosystem appears to be in constant change and evolution. If we as an industry can start to collaborate by dismantling the walled gardens, agree on even the most basic terms and perhaps even a standardize-able list of acceptable metrics, it could move the business further faster. Everyone benefits.

This article first appeared on www.MediaBizBloggers.com