The TV of Tomorrow Looks Ahead

Tracy Swedlow, co-founder and CEO, TMRW Corp., is an industry visionary who has been charting the course of media since the 1990s. Her bi-annual TV of Tomorrow conferences bring together a stellar group of industry professionals who offer insightful takeaways about the landscape and how executives can embrace and prosper through the transformation. 

What are the biggest trends going on right now in the industry? According to Swedlow, it is attribution and ATSC 3.0. “Attribution is a super-hot topic,” she noted, “It is the customer journey – how they move through apps, websites and eventually into stores where they buy something.” She believes that we will get to full attribution soon.  With ATSC 3.0, “We are still very much behind the development of that technology for local broadcasting. Local broadcasting will change and we want to be as supportive as we can to get the right people together,” she added. 

I interviewed a few speakers, asking them their opinion of what we should expect in the next year and in the next three years. Here is what they reported: 

Question: What do you see as the biggest changes or transformations in the media industry in 2019?

Sean Doherty, CEO of Wurl: The biggest transformation we anticipate is the “tipping point” we’ve talked about through this decade, and is now becoming reality: the shift away from traditional TV viewing to Internet-based viewing. This opens up new paths to revenue for the streaming platforms already included in connected TVs, and a huge opportunity for those who have not yet crossed over to OTT. These free, ad-supported channels are unburdened by the parameters of traditional, linear TV and can bring viewers new experiences outside of “the box.” The technology is here, the viewers are here. There’s no reason for video producers and services not to keep up.

Ryan Rolf, VP, Data Solutions at Lotame: Unified view-ability standards in TV will start to come to life. The shift in how we understand TV and its influence on audiences will allow advertisers to engage in the same types of strategies they do on digital channels, creating a holistic view across channels and engaging, measureable campaigns. However, the industry should take the learnings from earlier programmatic days and not rush to "scale" at expense of quality and ask right questions as they merge TV, Digital, Linear, and Mobile with Data.

Jeff Greenfield, COO and Co-Founder of C3 Metrics: There are two major trends. The first is that traditional brand metrics will be unified with multi-touch attribution. As of now, the number one thing that CMOs want is ROI and attribution. They exist, but technical issues (such as ad fraud) have prohibited attribution from becoming the Holy Grail for CMOs – we can expect this to change this year as attribution has matured. The second is that standards for attribution accreditation will be set. The industry is currently lacking standards, given that accreditation had been non-existent, but the Media Ratings Council has come out with view-ability accreditation. With upcoming attribution accreditation, marketers will be relieved that standards will be followed by measurement companies.

Question: Where do you see the industry 3-5 years from now? 

Swedlow: I am very excited about new ideas in interactivity. There have been some exciting new developments. Walmart, for example, is investing in a company called Echo. They also bought MGM assets. They are going to be moving forward on interactive TV technology. Netflix announced in the Fall that they are going to launch interactive content with Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series and they have been doing some interactive content with children’s programming. So I would say that this is an exciting new development to watch – interactive storytelling in a commercial environment. 

Doherty: All US-based video content will be consumed over the top.  The viewers are already there and from a business point of view, the revenue associated with “un-structuring” TV is evident, easily reachable, and simply makes sense.

Rolf: Voice data is early and overhyped at the moment, but eventually it will change advertising and tip the scales of power to the operators of the voice assistants in terms of who they recommend when a search request is initiated. CPG brands should be very wary of jumping in with Amazon for the sole fact that Amazon would likely learn all the data on what CPG products are most bought via voice and create their "Basics" version of it. They could possibly tilt scales in their own brand’s favor vs. the best interest of brands themselves. Also, voice takes away some power from consumers because unlike other medium where you have options visually displayed, that aspect is missing with voice allowing them to re-order or promote a brand of their choosing without your knowledge. It will be interesting to see how voice shakes out over the next several years.

Greenfield:  The biggest change will be the "Attribution Effect" – the 'after shocks' of advertisers leveraging attribution data which will force publishers to adapt to not only new formats, but content which is started from the perspective of the advertiser with outcome in mind.  The “Attribution Effect” will move media from its current outdated currency to Attribution's Outcome Currency.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Peering into the Media Crystal Ball at The TV of Tomorrow Conference

Every December in New York, we are given an opportunity to map out the future developments in media at the TV of Tomorrow conference. This year, Tracy Swedlow, co-founder and CEO, TMRW Corp., focused the event on hot topics such as Attribution, Addressable Advertising and Data and how these three impact content creation and sales.

Here are the major takeaways:

Addressable Advertising Advances

“Traditional TV was a one-to-many ad medium where all would see the same ad,” explained Brett Hurwitz, Business Lead, Advanced TV, Oath. ”Addressable is not the case. It delivers a direct ad to the most relevant individuals. It is individualized advertising,” he added.

According to Amy Leifer, Vice President Sales Planning and Operations, Xandr, there is huge potential in addressable. “When you use data to attract audiences, it is more meaningful. Outcomes are so much better than using blunt media,” she stated, and added, “The reality is that it works regardless of whatever vertical you use. And it continues to grow because it works.” Xandr, AT&T’s new advertising division, launched their addressable product seven years ago.

Competing companies, such as AT&T and Dish, are now partnering on certain addressable initiatives, such as the political advertising marketplace, where they need scale and reach. “They are a competitor but we are combining our audiences in certain markets. We have an office in Washington DC that is dedicated to that marketplace,” Leifer noted.

Desirable niche targets sometimes pose a risk in addressable. We need to monitor, “which households are seeing any given ad far too many times,” advised Kevin Arrix, Senior Vice President of Dish Media. “It is difficult to control because sequencing is sold by certain groups.”

Understand How to Leverage Content

Karen Leever, President, US Digital Products, Discovery, understands the importance of content format in attracting the right consumer on the right platform. “Consumers deserve ubiquity of content and we need to give them reasons to come back,” she explained. Discovery offers full seasons on demand and, with key tent pole shows like Shark Week, the company strives to “go deeper on those for super fans” by offering short form content on the event, 8-15 minutes in length that they especially enjoy.

Leever measures the success with number of streams and minutes watched which she examines every day for both long and short form programs. In addition, Discovery has a social media initiative and has developed a robust social media community. “We have 300 million social media fans,” she noted. Discovery partners with such companies as Group 9, Dodo and Seeker which helps age down their linear TV demographic. But this effort is only used to build awareness. “There is not a lot of access to  programming over social media. Viewers must go to the provider,” she explained.

While Discovery seeks to own their content, Google sources news rather than creates it, according to Rebekah Dopp, Principal, News and Local Media Global Partnerships, Google. And thre are no plans at this time to go beyond aggregating. “It is not our core competency, not in our DNA,” she explained. “We are not content creators but a platform. And we do all we can do to maintain integrity of those who provide content.”

Attribution is Hitting Its Stride

Media companies and agencies are focusing more and more on attribution. “Attribution is a super-hot topic,” according to Tracy Swedlow, co-founder and CEO, TMRW Corp, the parent company of TV of Tomorrow. 

For agencies, it is important to manage for frequency and understand targets that are applied to linear space, according to Helen Katz, SVP, Global Director of Data and Contract, Publicis Spine. Creative has been a bigger challenge, she noted, because there isn’t always multi versions of creative that can be used for targeting. “We are in a learning curve,” she stated. But it is possible to measure success. Katz has seen sellers guarantee against the outcome in addition to the grps. And yes, “they have to hit both guarantees,” she added.

Media companies have to create their own benchmarks in this new and emerging space because there is little history to rely upon. “We update our guidelines every year,” Katz said

Data Continues to Rule

Donna Speciale, President of Turner Ad Sales, is a big proponent of data to help sales maximize the value of their inventory. Their work with AT&T’s Xandr has been formalized this past June and now they are working closely, collaborating and gathering data to enhance their current products. Xandr offers Turner access to AT&T first party data for 25 million set top boxes and 147 million mobile devices. “Our goals is to enhance our audience products,” Speciale noted, “making them faster. Our goal is to have real time optimization so we can post a lot quicker and cleaner.”

Speciale is hoping to get to national addressable. “But we are not there yet,” she admitted. “To me, it would have to get to at least a 50% mark for it to be a viable option. It is hard for us to do anything of that size because anything that deviates in a national footprint for C3, we won't get credit for. Nielsen needs one marketer for a national unit.” If ads are split between two different advertisers, Turner would lose that national rating for that telecast.

But in the meantime, Turner is doing beta testing to make the data actionable within audience segments. Speciale expects to announce new products by 2Q 2019. She also plans on being able to do her own attribution instead of going to third party sources. “We’ve got to get out of the demo and into audiences,” she stated.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Ch Ch Ch Changes. TV of Tomorrow

There is only one thing that is constant whenever I attend the TV of Tomorrow conference and that is the discussion of change. But it is the rate of change that is especially dizzying today. As advanced technology permeates all aspects of consumer life, the impact on media is more like a revolution instead of an evolution. And that is what makes our industry so exciting.... or do I mean worrying? It all depends on where your business and your leadership sit in the ecosystem. Traditional media companies (whether in content curation or sales or measurement) need to keep up with the advancements or risk eroding their business.

Tracy Swedlow, Founder of TVOT explained that “this is an exceptionally changing year…. because there is so much disruption... investment, new ideas, platforms. Companies have to aggressively change their strategies even faster than they had to before.”

Even companies in the highly traditional measurement space are now expanding and modifying their systems to better address today’s measurement needs. Whether acquiring a competitor (like Nielsen and Arbitron or Rentrak and Kantar) or expanding via partnerships (like Nielsen and Adobe), the consolidation of efforts can result in more efficient and insightful measurement capabilities.

See a short video of some of the highlights of TVOT here:

For those of us in the traditional TV sector, changes can be divided into “Positive” and unsettlingly “Disruptive.” Here is how they parse out for me:

Positive Changes

We Are Speaking the Same Language

Back in 2010 CIMM commissioned me to write a Lexicon, to facilitate the standardization of measurement terms and definitions and help create a common language. Now terms like Digital Programmatic, Big Data and First Party Data tend to have generally accepted definitions. When we talk about census level data, there is general agreement as to what that means. It was not always so. Speaking a common language will facilitate further positive change.

Measurement Getting More Focused and Transparent
With all of the big and small data sets available and the advanced technology to drive analytics, we are now able to get to the core of consumer tracking behavior instead of relying on age and gender proxies.  CIMM’s Jane Clarke believes that there are two big positive trends in measurement - profiling and access. "One big trend is to profile customers based on the data and linking datasets across platforms such as linking purchase data with media use data. The media data revolution started in digital and is now moving into TV. The second trend is the proliferation of ways to access data. Planning and buying are evaluating effectiveness across platforms. This is driven by the desire to move away from linear rating points, away from surrogates of age and gender, to target consumers."

Now We Can Measure Sales Funnel Instead of Demographics
Along those lines, we can now attribute actual sales results to specific media campaigns. This frees us to valuate audiences based on actual purchases. Dunnhumby’s Lung Huang explains, “It is all about big data. We are ultimately doing matching exposure to purchase based on a verified household or person. We are taking the guesswork out of it. When Ted Turner first started CNN and it wasn’t rated, he sold ginsu knives. He didn't care about ratings. He wanted to see how many knives he sold. It is freeing today not to be tied to legacy. There are many different audiences and we can show you that they saw the ad and bought it.”

Disruptive Changes

The Long View Is Much More Important

We tend to have a short attention span in the TV business. We tend to look at content development and upfront sales a season ahead. Occasionally we plan ahead but generally we are looking down the block rather than across town. Facebook’s Patrick Harris noted that “We tend to overestimate in short term and under estimate in the long term. Where is the content where you are living three years from now? The creative bar has changed. It is now adding value when it used to be getting attention.”

Is Programmatic Destined to Include TV?

Can we expect programmatic to expand to television any time soon? Beth Rockwood of Discovery believes that “The television business is different in that the inventory is generally tight and therefore enjoys very high CPMs, especially in broadcast” while Visible World’s Seth Haberman states that “It already is.” Dave Morgan of Simulmedia sees both sides. He says “If programmatic TV means that a large portion of TV advertising will soon be bought and sold on a data-driven, audience-denomiated basis on metrics other than sex/age demographics, the answer is yes. That day is coming fast. However, if programmatic TV means that TV ads are about to be bought and sold machine-to-machine on a dynamic, real-time auction basis like online display. No. That kind of programmatic TV is years and years away."

Everything Takes Longer Than Expected

Despite our need for speed, transitions in the industry often take time. Rentrak’s Cathy Hetzel explained, “We are undergoing MRC accreditation now. We are changing the way TV is bought and sold but it does not change overnight. It happens when you achieve success. Rentrak started with unmeasured networks and the local stations embraced us. But to be part of the ecosystem we need to move up the chain.”

Technology Brings Its Own Timing Challenges

Mike Willner of Penthera noted the technological challenge of streaming ad supported video content.  “When you add advertising to downloaded content it becomes more complicated because of the ad flights. Christmas ads can be streamed in December 24 but viewed on December 26. So we would need to download next flight of ads. We have technology that helps to do this, we can ID the user and what content they are viewing and we can coordinate with the advertiser. But we can only upload new ads in streaming environment - not when it is downloaded for future use.”

Despite the dizzying spiral of change it is possible to carve out a path to assured future success for television in the evolving media ecosystem. The secret is to stay on top of the trends and take calculated long term risks. Don’t kick the vacuum tube down the road.


An excerpted version of this article appeared on www.Mediapost.com

TV of Tomorrow Reveals the Future

The TVOT, to me, is to cutting edge media intellectual property what the CES is to electronics - standing on the cusp of new innovations for the media industry. Even its conference location this year in a warehouse building near the new Hudson Yards development spoke to an early insider’s look of what the future will bring.

The jam packed, fast paced day covered advancements in TV Everywhere, Enhanced Advertising, Big Data, ACR, Smart TV and even UI design. According to Tracy Swedlow, CEO of Interactive TV Today and programmer of the TV of Tomorrow conference, one of the big changes from last year is that “the broadcasters are doing more exploration into interactive content platforms. They are heavily involved in TV Everywhere.” And the consumers are helping the industry move forward. “Viewers are more and more savvy. They understand these platforms. They expect more. They want more interactively. They want more options. They are using more second screen.”  Staying ahead or even keeping pace in this fast moving industry environment is critical to success.

The conference addressed the following issues: Where is the industry headed programmatically? What is holding back the business model? Where are the business opportunities? And this year, according to Swedlow, the conference included a “focus on Big Data because it is of critical importance to everybody in this community.” Panels on Big Data included “Big Data: Friend or Foe?” and “How Big is Big Data?”

But the Wild West atmosphere of groundbreaking interactive, addressable and analytical companies that give TVOT its unique energy was also evident. Companies included wywy which tracks and targets TV viewers online via measurement of synchronized advertising, ipowow which pushes out instantaneous communication in real time to harness audience participation and engagement, jinni which offers a personalize-able remote control via an app and Lingospot which offers a sync companion that pushes additional content to viewers as they watch TV.  

See videos from the full conference here:

Here are the top five big takeaways from the conference:

TV Everywhere is Alive, Well and Embedded into the Corporate Strategy

According to Comcast’s Matt Strauss, "TV Everywhere is one facet of our overall strategy. We want to give our customers what they want when they want it." But, he adds that TVE has to work for everyone involved, whether it is with rights, research, programming, devices. “We are now seeing the pieces come into place.” And Time Warner’s Chris Faw sees future possibilities in TV Everywhere as they work on the advertising model for it.

Standardization Facilitates Scale

There is a pressing need for standardization in such areas as metrics before true scalable growth can occur. Jeff Siegel of Rovi believes that “advanced platforms will not scale until consumers use the devices and agencies can access the data easily. Right now there are no standards across devices.” And ABC’s Pooja Midha said that the industry has “got to make it easier to buy across platforms.” Panelists agreed that advertising has to go beyond just the pre-roll and should facilitate interactivity across platforms.

It’s All Video, Just Different Screens

It’s official: Television is no longer defined as the hardware of the box. It has transcended to a more universal concept of video without borders. Tal Chalozin of Innovid saw the media landscape as “all video, just different screens. Consumers don't care what device it is. They know they are watching (a specific program).”

Break Down All Silos, Including Metrics

Whether it is the media companies themselves or the agencies, selling, buying and stewarding media by platform is labor intensive and inefficient. Alex Terpstra of Civolution sees that the “work is on the organizational side to make the package easily steward able for the agency. We need to stick to traditional TV metrics and make it work for the web.” Christopher Gillet of Adap.tv advised that we “need a data management platform. Everyone has their own datasets and we need to join these sets together.”

Big Data is More Important Than Ever – But We Need Interpreters!

Panelists agreed that age and gender has been a proxy. Now we can target consumers using big data. But analyzing Big Data is as much of an art as it is a science. Jane Clarke of CIMM, explained, “The research community has always had access to data.  But today we have all of this new census data coming from digital servers and set top boxes, and the analytics that go along with that data require a new set of skills in order to apply it in smart ways for business purposes.”