Kern Schireson Talks About Viacom’s Data Strategy at the Data Summit

Media's data dash is ramping up as evidenced by the discussions at the recent Data Summit conference. Whereas it had been a tough and arduous sell in to use targeted data in selling TV content several years ago, the technology and business models have improved to such a degree that media executives view using targeted data against consumer segments as part of business as usual now.

Kern Schireson, Chief Data Officer, Viacom presented his vision of data, how it is fully integrated within his company, how they position it to advertisers and brands and how it will play out in the media business marketplace. 

Chief Data Officer Responsibilities

His is a relatively new title in media world and his efforts have become integral to creating new strategic insights for his company. “What Viacom realized is that there are interesting opportunities at intersection between data and sales,” he explained. “There are opportunities to connect the dots and uncover new value and optimize the business.”

His work with data requires complex math, machine learning and algorithms that help the business react more efficiently. And it requires getting deep into the details of how the media business functions while trying to connect it to advertisers and brands in a new way. “It’s all about inter-operability and building the pipes,” he noted, “Because the rise of data can bring more intelligence into the business it opens doors between the siloed areas. It offers new ways of thinking about the business from the processing aspect.”

Getting MVPD Data

Viacom recently announced a deal with Charter for their data which offers an opportunity for the two companies to work together. This partnership can enable a new way of thinking between MVPDs and media companies. Shireson explained that, “There are things that MVPDs do well and there are things on the publisher side that are unique and valuable. In the past this was treated as a zero sum game. We are now working as partners to make the TV ecosystem bigger and better positioned for the future.” Viacom’s goal is to maximize viewership and be able to monetize it. “We need traditional TV to be smarter and work across the aisle to leverage the best data and methodologies.

Explaining the Value of Data Within Viacom

In any company, even within the most progressive ones, there can be a divide between those who have worked in television for a long time and those who are coming in with fresh perspectives but little TV experience. “I do think there is still this learning curve when and where to use data scientists,” Shireson confessed. There was a concern that robots would come in and tell veteran programmers what programs to run. But, he assured the audience, “that is not what we are aiming at.”

Instead, he feels that his role is to offer tools and new capabilities to help that person maximize their instincts and leverage their intelligence and creativity. “It is not about us replacing you with a machine but giving you an iron man suit,” he assured. “These are just tools that offer predictive algorithms to better estimate show performance and estimate sales impressions. It gives you something to bounce your other estimates against so you can say, ‘Let's re-factor these other conditions and streamline the process. We are trying to be additive rather than a replacement.” The intent is that, over time, it is possible to get to a place where the business is run more efficiently. “It is a collaboration to make the business better,” he concluded.

And all of this data is not just useful for sales. Shierson’s data empire can be used for the creative discipline of programming.  We can use data to discover, “what are topics out there and how can we understand the zeitgeist,” he noted. “What are the trends in culture, what are the patterns of viewership in different parts of the day?”  The data can now be used to support a decision, knowing that the media ecosystem is a much more dynamic environment than ever before. More multiplatform programming creates a real time cultural experience, especially with much of Viacom properties’ audiences.

All in all, data provides a huge area of opportunity. “We need to reframe the conversation so that everyone is doing better and delivering a better product,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Ad Week 2017: Communication Is Shifting from Words to Images to Sound

It is hard to wrap your head around the myriad events associated with Advertising Week.  This year the excitement ratcheted up for all things technology, specifically augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and especially audio communication.  All these efforts are currently impacting and will continue to impact the media industry, placing strains on traditional business models and enabling new cutting-edge companies.  But a simple overview of all these technological bells and whistles belies some crucial brand and media oriented trends on consumer behavior. Here are some takeaways:

Communication is Changing from Words to Images
Just like the early cave paintings, images today are taking on a major form of communication and storytelling.  We are moving from the word to the image to express ourselves in the forms of photos, videos and emojis.  In fact, according to Lydia Daley, Senior Vice President Social Media and Branded Content Strategy, Viacom, "Visual imaging is currently the major form of Millennial communication."  Millennials value experiences over material things and are seeking authenticity in their interactions with brands.  It is simply not enough to talk the talk.  Brands need to demonstrate that they are good citizens with a compelling story.

Audio Is Not Only Not Dead, It Is Poised to Rule
As technology advances and households continue to adopt voice activated appliances, audio is slated to become even more popular as a way to communicate.  Just as Millennials are gravitating toward images, Gen Z is moving to audio.  Why bother searching the Internet when you can simply request Alexa to find the content for you?  "Podcasts will explode," as part of this audio-ification of communication, said Susan Panico, Senior Vice President, Strategic Solutions, Pandora.  Marketers will have to consider how they can best leverage podcasts and other audio formats to reaffirm their branding and best reach their consumers.

Gina Garrubbo (pictured at top left), President and CEO, National Public Media, emphasized the importance of what she termed “host driven authenticity” as an essential ingredient in both the strong connection that listeners have for audio content and in turn the efficacy of program advertising.

Data Buzz Continues
Data and its related topics of measurement, attribution and blockchain technology were discussed at many panels because, as the old saying goes, if you can't measure it, you can't monetize it.  Simulmedia's CEO and Founder Dave Morgan believes that "the biggest advancements in advertising over the next two years will happen in measurement and attribution."  This is already happening "as advancements in matching media exposures and purchase data at real scale" are leading to "real ROI analysis at a tactical, per campaign level," he said.

But there is still some trepidation concerning data quality.  "Advertisers can buy an incredible array of very precise customer targets now, but no one really knows what they are buying," noted Scott McDonald, President and CEO of the ARF.  "We need much better standards around data quality to provide better guidance to the market.

"An unambiguous rating system that can offer an independent 'grade' on the quality of data sold for ad targeting," might be possible in the next two years, he optimistically added.

Viewing Patterns are Evolving
According to Cindy Davis, Executive Vice President, Consumer Experience, Disney | ABC Television Group, the multi-platform environment is evolving into a new way for families to co-view.  Her department launched a new research study called "Togetherish" that examines the evolving way that households watch, share and engage with content.  "Consumers are changing very rapidly," she noted.  "We must understand what viewers want and what motivates them.  We want to know where viewing is going across devices and platforms."

What the study revealed is that there are eight types of households each with their own viewing dynamic.  "All types watch over 20 hours per week and all types find value in ad-supported content," Davis explained.  While 57% of all of these homes watch TV alone, this is deceiving.  Because of the plethora of devices, no one really watches totally alone anymore.  In fact, of that 57%, 21% are actually communicating with others virtually while viewing, leading to the term convergent viewing.  "Convergent viewing heightens engagement," Davis noted.  "They watch virtually together. They watch more deeply and feel deeply connected to characters on an emotional level.  We also see higher brand metrics across the board with convergent-viewed shows."

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Revenue is a Byproduct of Great Customer Experience. The Wisdom of Viacom’s Bryson Gordon

“My career is weird,” confessed Bryson Gordon, Executive VP Advanced Advertising Group, Viacom. After starting his career “designing an ad blocker,” he is now responsible for expanding Viacom’s arsenal of cross media ad inventory by creating a great customer experience for targeting ads. “But”, he adds, “Business transformation has been a thread throughout.”

Gordon’s first job out of college was for a computer security company, where “we were the first to do software as a service (SAAS) before it was even called software as a service. We fundamentally changed the business model for that industry.” Then at Microsoft, where in a variety of roles, he grew the company’s then tiny direct-to-consumer business into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. “It was a fundamental shift for a gigantic company to reshape how it took its product to market,” he noted. Now at Viacom, he has found his calling. “Here I have the opportunity to work with an amazing set of people and transform the television business. I love that.” 

I sat down with Gordon to find out more about how he will transform television:

Charlene Weisler: Give me a short overview of your department initiatives. 

Bryson Gordon: When we first started Vantage (Viacom’s Data-Driven and Predictive Ad Solution Advertiser Service) it was very much about developing ad capabilities that focused on targeting, measurement, attribution, advanced audience modeling, etc. I ask myself this question: What is going to feel different? Not just some corporate mandate, but when we start to think about the North Star of the organization, what will feel different between our capabilities and where we are going in this new advanced advertising organization. The fundamental pivot is to shift from capabilities to the customer experience of advertising. Customer experience is a loaded term. But when we think about Viacom in creating formats, ad experiences, cross platforms, what are the specific audiences that really drive impact? What can we do as an organization of data scientists, information specialists, researchers, product development people, to fundamentally evolve the customer experience with advertising so that it is incredible for our customers and for our partners? 

Charlene: How will you achieve that?

Bryson: Our team has historically been made up of product managers and data scientists. Now the team spans product management, data science, developers, designers, people who are specialists in the launch of multi-platform environments where content ends up – the social and digital environment. Then we focus on creating not just traditional advertising but also branded marketing content to create the optimal advertising and marketing experiences for our fans in that environment. Then, what can we do to actually orchestrate that in a very thoughtful and methodical way around advanced audience targets that we develop within the organization.

Charlene: How will your work influence or impact OpenAP?

Bryson: OpenAP is foundational to what we are doing within advanced advertising. The focus that Sean Moran, Head of Sales, Viacom, has given us is the opportunity to go across all the different ad formats – from digital to social to linear television to OTT to addressable television – in our portfolio. As we continue to evolve with OpenAP, which launches in the fall, we are taking this notion of consistent advanced audience targeting beyond just the traditional linear television screen into the multi-platform environment. 

Charlene: What are the overall goals that you want to achieve now and over the next three years?

Bryson: I start from the position of the customer. My odd principle that has stuck with me over the years is: Revenue is a byproduct of great customer experience. It is simple but if we use that as a lens through which to assess the set of investments we make in the advanced advertising organization, it gives us tremendous focus. It helps us understand what we need to do to make the ad experience in traditional linear television even better. How do we do that through better targeting and through better formats? We think about the customer journey in Viacom content that cuts across platforms. What can we do, not just to connect, but actually orchestrate that? That is the thing that a year from now, I would like to look back and say that is the fundamental thing I wanted to achieve and I have achieved that.

Charlene: Are you developing attribution models to help you do that?

Bryson: We have been developing attribution models for a couple of years. Interestingly, our ability to drive precise measurement against advanced advertising on television and across multi-channels has facilitated the scaling of adoption of this new currency of TV. An example – a large automotive client who has done a number of campaigns with us, we have that ability to take their target, connect that target back to an addressable set top box, connect that to mobile phone Geo location data, and actually show them not only the physical list of people going to the auto dealership in a specific window after the campaign but also show them which specific dealers have the best local marketing investment on top of the national that was driving the highest lift for their specific region.

Charlene: Can you influence the ad market with your work? 

Bryson: I do because I have already seen that with the reception of Vantage and OpenAP.  We continue to see significant year to year growth in both the number of advertisers who are adopting advanced currencies and the amount of dollars flowing through advanced advertising currencies. 

Charlene: Your team comes from many different areas. How do you get them to strategize together?

Bryson: I deliberately try to not place them together. One of the things we found is that is super interesting is that I have hired a lot of people who don’t know anything about television. I hired a PhD in neuroscience from Toronto whose PhD was about how deep memories get formed in the brain. He doesn’t know the first thing about GRPs or Nielsen demos. What he does know is how you actually influence people and how you drive deep persuade-ability. We have people who bring perspective and expertise to our team that doesn’t look anything like how the TV industry looked like over the past 20 years. It makes for an environment where we can have hackathon style meetings and have people from industry, academia, science, economics, anthropology mixed with people with deep expertise in television. Great things happen. 

Charlene: How are you measuring results for advertisers and campaigns?

Bryson: There is a lot of customization depending on who is behind it and what the campaign is. One of the first conversations we have with an advertiser is: What are the KPIs that are important to you? Do you want to see a higher density of people within the segment? Do you want to see more de-duplicated reach within a segment? Do you want to measure physical lift to a restaurant, auto dealership or a retailer? We give them all of the normal measurements such as impressions delivered against your custom audience, but we also do a lot of custom reporting for clients, depending on what they are trying to achieve. These buys are guaranteed as a currency with in-target delivery. It makes people really comfortable.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
 

Hurdles in Attribution.

Recently, CIMM, The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, released the findings of a study on attribution conducted by Sequent Partners. The main conclusion was that, as an industry, we have made some progress towards the development of an attribution model across media. However, there is more work to do and, at least in the near term, there are few viable systems currently available that holistically capture cross-platform consumer behaviors.

This is an industry imperative but the challenges are steep. To get a lay of the land, I sat down with Julian Zilberbrand, EVP, Audience Science, Viacom Media Networks, Ben Clarke, President, The Shipyard and Jane Clarke,  CEO, Managing Director, CIMM.

Charlene Weisler:  What, for you, were the most important takeaways from the CIMM Sequent Whitepaper on attribution?

Julian Zilberbrand: There is still much work to be done to truly do cross platform attribution, especially when taking into account non-digital touch points.  The methodology used, I believe, still leads back to a Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) versus Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA).   MMM has its value but is a different capability that has been in existence for a long time and is seen to have flaws as well. The need for attribution is real and necessary in our space but individual advertiser KPIs make a one-size-fits-all model impossible.

Jane Clarke: The most significant insight emerging from our whitepaper is that clearly while progress is being made, there is still much development work needed for a truly integrated marketing mix modeling and attribution approach to ROI analysis. We have outlined some important elements of the direction that development needs to take for a more holistic solution, but important work lies ahead.  The future of cross-channel attribution is being formed now, so it is in the best interest of media buyers and sellers alike to get involved in the process to ensure that the industry has options moving forward that truly serve our needs.

Charlene Weisler:  What do you see as the greatest challenges in attribution? 

Julian Zilberbrand: The biggest hurdles from the digital end are the proper attribution of search and social; you need actual log files that search and social partners will not provide. As for non-digital touch points, there is a lack of universal id to properly attribute exposure in more traditional areas of marketing and the proper data structure with functional nomenclature across all channels.

Ben Clarke: There is so much noise in the data as to what's really influencing a sale - something as simple as how close a person lives to a retail location is a main driver of sales - but not accounted for in attribution - further most attribution models.  In addition - the term attribution itself probably needs to be dimensionalized - attribution models are usually deployed against sales targets - but some channels may be great for building awareness and preference (which are important) but don't lead directly to sales.  In other words - attribution deals in Purchase Funnels where not every meaningful relationship is a sale.

Jane Clarke: The biggest challenge to full cross channel attribution is accurate measurement of consumer and/or household identity to link all the media exposure datasets to purchasing datasets and/ or other KPIs for marketing campaigns.

Charlene Weisler:  How long do you think it will take for formulate a viable attribution model? Is it even possible? 

Julian Zilberbrand: We still have work to do to get to MTA to be a truly viable solution for determining effective marketing touchpoints across all channels.  Not all consumer touch points are given proper credit or provide the level of time-stamped data which can effectively feed the MTA properly. Additionally, various advertiser KPIs present a real challenge to solve for in a single modeled approach. The model might not yield relevant results in every instance.  Creating models or game theory takes a significant time to ramp up and requires a level of patience that most marketers don’t have.  Of course it’s possible, but only if cross platform measurement solutions, both globally and for the U.S., reach their full potential.

Ben Clarke: I don't think there will be "a model."  This is the issue with one size fits all fractional attribution platforms you can buy out of the box - the neatly assign values to each channel - but when you go to activate against those insights they largely fail to be predictive.  Usually great attribution involves setting up controlled experiments on a continuous basis - so I don't think the goal should be to come up with "a model" at all - maybe better to come up with a methodology that can deliver versions of models over time.

Jane Clarke: Viable models are beginning to emerge for full cross channel marketing ROI attribution, and will improve along with the ability to link and/or model consumer and household identity across more and more devices, marketing channels, and purchasing datasets.

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

The Culture of Proximity in a Vastly Changing World – A New Viacom Velocity Study

Viacom Velocity’s Culture and Creative Insights team  just released the results of a new study on Millennials that they made into a documentary called “The Culture of Proximity.” In a time of fake news and alternate facts, it appears as if Millennials are taking a new look at what really constitutes truth, forming new relationships that may not necessarily require any actual physical contact and endowing brands with human characteristics.  

The Culture of Proximity study revealed four major themes –

       1.       The Conjoint Effect: Brands are people, and people are brands.

       2.       New Centers of Gravity: Proximity puts people on the same playing field as creators of mass culture. 

       3.       The New Intimacy: The difference between “in real life” and virtual is blurry. True intimacy is possible without physical proximity.

       4.       The Filtered Me: The idea of authenticity is being rewritten.

Velocity Culture and Creative Insights’  senior director Mary Kate Callen and director Maya Peterson explained how these Millennial attitudes can play out for brands, companies, and the general culture at large.

Charlene Weisler: What are the major takeaways that you discovered?

Mary Kate Callen: We fielded this study prior to the election so we were shocked to see that a third of Millennials believe that there is no such thing as the truth. We noticed that there is a new dynamic in culture where you construct your own version of culture. There is a positive side, obviously, where you can experience the world as you want to – your favorite friends and celebrities, your niche fandom. But creating that cultural bubble has its downside which is that there really isn’t a shared sense of what is fact. We also found that 51% of Millennials say that sometimes they don’t believe the things that mainstream culture considers to be fact. That feels very relevant for the time we are in right now.

Charlene Weisler: How do you see that playing out?

Maya Peterson: Our institutions are at risk right now and hopefully they will become more transparent and we will see more authenticity from them, which is something that Millennials really crave.

Mary Kate: We see people having a stronger sense of relationships – there is a lack of trust in institutions but more of a trust in other people, so that closeness of proximity we have to each other is translating into a trust between one another - If you share an interest online, for example, versus the traditional authority figure. There has really been a shift in that. 

Charlene Weisler: Do you see trends like the conjoint effect leading to a culture of narcissism?  

Maya: That is an interesting question. The conjoint effect describes the phenomena of people taking on the characteristics of brands and celebrities because of our close proximity to each other and to the making of culture. So we see that, for example, 50% of Millennials think that a movie should be made about their lives. And 70% are actually choosing things to do in real life based on being able to post about them. But we wouldn’t call that narcissism. We think it is that people have a sense that they not only have more control of their personal narratives but they also have more control of the cultural narrative. There is a sense that your voice is important and that you can make a change. 61% of Millennials say that they can influence popular culture. We see this in the activism and political engagement of this group. It’s not narcissism. It is impacting culture for the general good in a lot of ways.

Charlene Weisler: What impact do you see on the future where brands are considered people? How will that influence corporate behavior?

Mary Kate: We have already seen this explode. Brands are using the slang of people, they are responding to other brands as individuals. But right now I see this as more surface level acting as a person. The question for the future is, ‘Will brands take this to the next level of what being a person really is?’ For example, people have complex, dimensionalized values and that is a difficult thing for brands to nail. Another example is the idea of authenticity and the gap of what that means as a person versus what that means as a brand. We think authenticity for people often means being honest and transparent, being your whole self. Whereas for brands right now it is often equated with consistency – are brands saying the same thing in their social channels, TV ads, experiential executions – with consistency being a stand-in for authenticity. Currently, a third of Millennials believe that brands aren’t as honest as people try to be. There is an opportunity for brands to improve that perception.

Charlene Weisler:  How do you see personal relationships shaped by these attitudes playing out in the next decade? How will it impact the culture in family values and friendships?

Maya: What we are seeing now is that people feel closer to people they have a shared interest with online than those in their own community. We asked a question about who you trust most – people your own age, news media, the government, people online with a shared interest or people in your community. The number one response with 68% was people online with a shared interest. People in your own community was #3. So the definition of a personal relationship is changing. You don’t need physical proximity to feel close anymore. In fact you may not even have to know someone at all to have a real relationship online. But looking future forward, we think that shared experiences still matter and that ultimately people create community whether online or in person.

Charlene Weisler:  Will some brands and market categories be more affected by this Millennial attitude than others? If so which and how?

Mary Kate: All categories will be affected by this eventually. Millennials are the largest consumer group and we are living in a Millennial-ized world. They are the early signifiers of cultural change that eventually get adopted. In future generations it will be even more acute. While Millennials are defined as Digital Natives, the next generation may be defined as Proximity Native - People who have grown up with this changing cultural dynamic. We see this affecting multiple categories now and moving forward.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com