Mike Bologna Predicts the Future of Addressable Television

As the structure of the TV buy and sell paradigm evolves with advancements in automation, technology and protocols, the future of television is filled with a range of dramatic possibilities. Mike Bologna, President one2one Addressable, Cadent, presented his views of what he sees as the future of Addressable TV at the recent TVB conference held in New York. 

Bologna spoke with Videa President Shereta Williams about what’s next in targeted TV and automation for broadcasters. The discussion focused on the automation of the business model to, as he explained, “enable new business models; what broadcasters are doing to advance standard API adoption through the TIP initiative; what is the local broadcast Addressable Advertising opportunity now and in the future; and how will connected TVs and ATSC 3.0 adoption enable Addressable Advertising.” The TIP initiative is a partnership between system providers in order to streamline transaction workflows and create greater inter-activity between various buy and sell systems. 

The Pressure is On

For Bologna, TV once involved the entire family sitting around a wooden TV box viewing content together. But that was a long time ago. “TV was easier to plan, buy and measure,” he reminisced, “But that is not the case anymore. Now no one is at home watching TV. We are now in a world where consumers have all the choices in the world.”

All players in the ecosystem have their challenges. Overall, the industry needs to be nimble and forward-moving. There is a natural tendency to strive for the perfect solution but that can hamper progress but hesitation is lethal. “TV is changing,” he stated, “and we can't wait until its ‘perfect’ to adopt addressable.” He also pointed out that data and technology are the center of the TV business and the industry is poised for great change.

Brands are under a lot of pressure to “get the most bang for their buck,” while, “Media owners need the highest rent they can get so they can continue to produce great content. It is a complex marketplace,” he noted. And agencies, according to Bologna, have the hardest job of all. “Agencies have the burden of putting all of it together holistically and not in silos.”

Actionable Steps

Broadcasters face their own unique challenges in implementing addressable (including carriage agreements, unified measurement system). Marketers are limited with two minutes per hour. And between the two entities, there are a myriad of legacy buy/sell systems that have “a lot of pieces to be stitched together across twelve different systems. There is no way we can scale without solving that problem. That is where the TIP initiative comes it.” The opportunities are there for these two sides of the buy/sell to facilitate the targeting of messages to reach the right consumers at the right time.

“Define a segment and send a message to that particular home,” he stated. “Addressability should deliver audience at scale. Not 120 million households but whatever the percent of the U.S. your target audience is. And it should tie back to a sale or whatever you are trying to achieve.”

The messaging “has to be efficient as calculated by price divided by return in investment,” he noted and added, “It has to be transparent in terms of scale and it has to drive results you want. (Addressable) is the only area of TV where you start with a segment, match it, feed it in and tie it back to a sale.”

New Technology

Broadcasters need to take full advantage of the emerging technology of smart TVs. “If your TV is connected to the internet you can receive an addressable ad. This is the broadcaster's marketplace to win and conquer,” he said. “Today, implementation of addressable advertising faces challenges of scale. With an alliance between the TVB and several Smart TV OEM’s, this is a great proof of concept and interim solution until ATSC 3.0 is in play,” he advised. 

But he is also realistic about the timeline for ATSC 3.0. “Speaking specifically about broadcast, ATSC 3.0 will solve this for us tomorrow if it was mandatory, which it is not. Because it isn't mandatory and it costs money it will be a slow roll out.” Despite this, he is bullish on the ATSC 3.0 Protocol Stack as a future game-changer. “It will speed up adoption of addressable TV, though it could be a while until this protocol is widely adopted,” he hedged.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

.

Getting Ahead of a Changeable News Cycle. An Interview with Videa’s Shereta Williams

Every day seems to bring a new catastrophic or controversial news crisis that charges the atmosphere. While we cannot control these events, we can control how we respond and navigate through them. Placing advertising that is sensitive to the program content through addressable is a way to demonstrate greater sensitivity as well as protect the brands’ reputation.

I sat down with Shereta Williams, President, Videa and talked with her about the risk to brands in this changeable environment and what companies can do to navigate the shoals.

Charlene Weisler: What would you say is the biggest risk to brands at this time?

Shereta Williams: The biggest risk comes in lacking the agility necessary to respond to the event at hand. If you don’t have the means to respond to a major event that everyone is talking about, you’re risking the possibility of automatically being seen by the general public as associating with the negative aspects of that given event. One wrong message, whether on social media, in a blog post or otherwise, can impact your brand in the blink of an eye.

Weisler: What are the biggest challenges that brands face today?

Williams: Brands are facing the challenge of not being able to adjust their current campaigns that may be negative considering current events, to something more positive. Social media is a perfect example of that and Twitter is an especially challenging channel. One wrong hashtag, or even one wrong “favorite,” can turn your consumers against you. Further to that, going back to a “business as usual” attitude too soon turns people off and can be seen as making light of the tragedy after the fact.

Weisler: Are there any opportunities for brands or steps that they can take in responding to news crisis cycles?

Williams: Don’t be silent. You don’t want to make too much noise, resulting in one of your messages being misconstrued but you also don’t want to sit back and say nothing. Take a stand for what you believe in and craft a message around that belief that doesn’t alienate one person or group. Also, align your marketing and communications efforts so that you can quickly adjust your message in light of current events. They can also take advantage of the opportunity to help in a very visible way. For example, AirBnB’s response during Hurricane Harvey was a perfect marketing moment to both let people know they were making homes available for free and to showcase their compassion by doing so.

Weisler: How can programmatic buying of media assist brands in maintaining their integrity?

Williams:  Data. It’s all about the proper use of quality data, measurement, and analytics. As consumer data sets become richer – beyond just typical household demographics – brands will be able to utilize those metrics in more compelling, possibly safer ways. At Videa, for instance, we use cross-indexing of data from Nielsen and comScore. Those are not complete sets of psychographics, obviously, but they are foundational data that still drive the bulk of automated selling and buying. Because of the speed of today’s news and media, brands and agencies will always have to be on-guard to some degree with messaging at the ready for when emergencies or incidents occur. Programmatic offers an expedient way  to market when a quick response is required, and when paired with intelligent use of data, can be a very powerful way to promote goodwill for your brand.

Weisler: How can brands get in front of these news crises?

Williams: It’s all about planning ahead. Unfortunately, crises are happening all the time. While brands can’t necessarily predict the future, you can craft a narrative for possible scenarios that speaks to your core values so that when the crisis hits, you can adjust that same narrative to be relative to the topic at hand. Ensuring that is communicated across your entire company from marketing to IT is just as important as the narrative itself – you don’t want one person affecting the entire integrity of the brand.

Weisler: Looking ahead to 2020, where do you see the role of media, of programmatic TV and of advertising?

Williams: We are seeing, from the programmatic TV perspective, an increased awareness and adoption of this technology to drive results and maximize engagement. There is momentum from both the buy-side and sell-sides for an easier, more transparent way to buy and sell TV advertising – less of a walled garden approach. We believe, over the next few years, there will also be a stronger movement and embrace of establishing a set of common guidelines and open standards across the industry. We expect there to be more examples of data sharing and transparent fee structures across platforms, and more openness, in terms of technical platform integrations and how business transactions take place.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Content Targeting For Greater Consumer Attention

Content targeting—ensuring greater consumer engagement—has never been more important to programmers and advertisers. But how can these creators capture viewer attention in a world of multiple devices and multitasking? At a recent Mediapost Programmatic Insider Summit, Nicolle Pangis, COO, Xaxis, indicated a need to focus on creating better experiences in content targeting. Indeed, there is a lot of innovation in the areas of creative, targeting, and technology that is advancing the industry.

Read more about how content targeting facilitates consumer engagement and attention.

Advanced Advertising: Content Remains at the Core ... But Data is a (Very) Close Second

How often does one get to go to a sales oriented conference and hear panelists rhapsodize about data? Not in my corporate lifetime as a researcher for a range of television networks. But if you hang around long enough, I guess you see everything come to pass. And so it was at the recent B&C Advanced Advertising conference as part of television week. 

Here are some of my takeaways from the conference:

Data is Out of Research and Into Sales

It is not what all of the panelists said but it was the leitmotif of this and other conferences on media. And that is, Research is there but more and more in the background while Data is being pulled out of the Research function and moved either into siloed departments reporting to the same C-level executive or moved under Sales. What I thought would be a renaissance for Research seems to be turning into a new level of purgatory. Data without Research-applied analytics and Research-derived insights is worthless in my opinion.

Is It Time For a JIG?

This is arguably one of the most controversial and legally risky ideas in our business. But that does not mean that others are not talking about forming an industry wide group to discuss things like standardization, edit rules and metrics. In a common interest group, all would participate so the issues of anti-competitiveness or antitrust should be moot. Linda Yaccarino Chairman, Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal fired the first public volley in this battle by asking, “How do we come together as an industry to better measure our product? It has to be more intuitive and we’ve got to get to a place with a uniform currency. The good thing about Nielsen is that it has decades of experience but it is largely self-reported. We need to come together and coalesce as an industry.” Boom.

Standardization of Metrics is Pivotal

Standardization falls along the lines of forming some sort of common interest group to decide, among other things, standard metrics whether for cross platform, advanced advertising or programmatic TV. The standardization and creation of common metrics came up on practically every panel. As Yaccarino explained, “We have to have a common currency and have to measure the efficacy and value of the consumer experience.” When asked what the greatest impediment to the adoption of TV Programmatic was, Brent Gaskamp, SVP Corporate Development N.A. Videology replied, “No standard metrics.” Travis Howe, SVP Client Services and Operations, Invision, noted, “Standardization will be an issue. Measurement will be an issue.” Shereta Williams, President Videa concluded that, “Measurement has to get better, especially cross platform measurement.” But even if we were to all agree, nothing is easy. Frank Foster, SVP GM TiVo Research added a new wrinkle. He explained, “We currently don't have stewardship systems that can handle the new metrics.”

Will Bigger Networks with Higher Ratings Continue to Dominate?

The answer is ‘not necessarily’, but it depends on who you ask.  For Johnathan Bokor, SVP Director of Advanced Media at Mediavest, “In order to get insight into a program or network we need data depth and we are not there yet. We built a system over the past 75 years where big nets and big ratings get the most money. But as you move to an addressable-based paradigm, this type of spending needs to be justified. If your audience is found on the long tail networks, your cost will be cheaper. Large networks will need to prove that they are worth the premium money. We need to look at context of high rated shows. They need to prove that network primetime is worth the premium.” But Lance Neuhauser, CEO of 4C, countered, “The small guys will still have to figure out a way to prove its value.”

In conclusion, the media landscape continues to shift. Definitions of programmatic, advanced advertising and addressable advertising continue to tangent and merge. But some things are eternal:  Make it Easy to Implement and Bring Value Through the Sales Funnel. Marianne Gambelli EVP Chief Investment Officer at Horizon summed it up when she said, “I want research across all media to unlock better value that we can't get our arms around manually.”

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Q&A Interview with Shereta Williams, President, Videa.

Shereta Williams, President of Videa grew up on a farm in rural Georgia before moving to Boston to study electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Her career has taken her from financial start-ups and mergers and acquisitions at Lazard to Cox Media Group. She is currently the president of Videa which, she says is “a Cox-Media-Group-backed supply-side platform bringing automation and data-driven decision-making to broadcast television.”

Williams sees a great synergy in her expansive background. She states that ”I am driven by a desire to create value and all of the paths leading to my current role – farming, finance and engineering – are ultimately about creating growth.  In the following interview she talks about her work with broadcast networks, TV measurement and the future of TV programmatic and the media environment in general.

CW: Tell me about your company, current job and projects?

SW: Videa brings automation and data-driven decision-making to broadcast television. We debuted earlier this year and recently announced over 10 strategic partnerships including Mediaocean, Videology, and Raycom to bring audience-driven buying and new demand to spot television. I lead the organization in overall strategic and product direction. I have over a decade of experience with Cox in various investment, strategy and development roles focused on digital media. We launched our beta product this past December and officially debuted at the 2015 National Association of Broadcasters Show. We are launching our commercial product this fall.

CW: What type of strategic partnerships – can you be more specific?

SW: Videa is currently working with seven key broadcast partners including Gannett, Raycom, Media General, Graham Media, and Cox as well as major advertising agencies including Carat / Amplifi and Starcom to enhance and simplify the buying and selling of TV advertising. In April of this year, Videa inked a key partnership with Mediaocean to provide agencies unprecedented speed, efficiency and transparency to traditional local broadcast media transactions. As part of the agreement, Videa will be the supply partner for broadcast inventory that will be initially available through Mediaocean’s Spectra.

CW: Do you work with just broadcast or do you also work with cable networks?

SW: We work with broadcasters. By utilizing our platform, local broadcasters can now leverage automation and data to enhance existing selling approaches and increase demand to their inventory. Our solution optimizes inventory, simplifies workflows and increases revenue for broadcasters.

CW: Where do you think programmaticTV is today?

SW: Programmatic buying has been one of the biggest buzzwords this year in the traditional media ecosystem. Until about 18 months ago, programmatic buying was mostly restricted to the digital display business. And nearly 40 percent of all U.S. digital ad spend is expected to be conducted through programmatic buying transactions in 2015 according to eMarketer. Now, programmatic practices are more commonly applied to the sale of other media including TV.

Programmatic buying has become a viable and growing option for TV advertising this year and the multibillion dollar local market is in play – spot TV, in particular. In programmatic, buying is more automated and the targeting method of choice is based on audience spending insights as opposed to broad demographics. Today programmatic TV offers a variety of benefits, which improve the standard linear TV advertising model. For example, having an automated buying process saves time for ad buyers and sellers since many of the resource-heavy elements of these transactions can be streamlined. Additionally, advertisers can add consumer spending data to their purchasing plan to ensure they target viewers with the most appropriate messaging.

CW: Where do you think it will be in 2017?

SW: In 2017, advertisers will be able to purchase audiences across platform (digital and TV) based on enhanced data attributes more efficiently than they can buy stand-alone digital and TV today. It will allow for relevant messages to consumers and more engagement with audiences.

CW: Do you think TV measurement metrics will change from the current Nielsen currency?

SW: I think measurement will change over time to include more spending, behavioral and psychographic data in addition to demographic and viewing data. So I’m not sure Nielsen goes away so much as it gets augmented with additional information on who is viewing what.

CW: Give me some predictions regarding television and how it will look in the next five years.

SW: I think I saw a quote somewhere that “TV is the new TV” and I think that’s right. TV companies invest a tremendous amount of resources in creating quality, engaging content and that investment will allow them to continue to extend their audiences and business models across all platforms – online, OTT, mobile, etc. The content bundles, currencies and distribution models may be different but the providers and their ability to pair advertisers with their audiences will continue. I do think there are likely to be some new networks that emerge from MCNs but the existing networks will evolve and grow as well.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com