Putting Data at the Center of the Media Business. Interview with TiVo’s Walt Horstman

In this expanding media environment, there are increasing pressures on legacy media systems to keep pace with the change. Requirements include the faster infusion of new and ever larger data sets, quality algorithms and the need for advanced flexible interfaces. Walt Horstman, SVP/GM Analytics and Advertising at TiVo, is committed to keeping his company on the forefront of all of these industry changes and shared his views with Media Village in this latest interview:

Charlene Weisler: Walt, how do you view the current state of agency TV/Video Audience Optimizations programs and systems?

Walt Horstman: A key challenge both the agency and the sell-side systems face is bringing all the disparate current and future media platforms together.  I believe this will be addressed through an organizing principle around data.  We’ll build from a common foundation of data and then move out from there to the various workflows and applications of the data for different respective media platforms.  In many respects, putting the data at the center to solve this challenge also puts the consumer at the center and ultimately creates an improved consumer experience with marketing.

Weisler: How do you see this evolving over the next 24-36 months to incorporate cross-platform data?

Horstman: This evolution has already begun and I believe we’ll see partnerships develop over the next few years across systems that have expertise in each of the media platforms.  For example, at TiVo, we have great expertise in advanced data predictions and optimization systems for TV.  We’ll partner with others who have expertise in mobile or OTT.   It is unrealistic that a single unifying cross-platform optimization application will emerge, so best-in-class systems will partner.  The connectivity will be around deterministically-matched data.

Weisler: Do you think that the agency systems will be able to adapt to the future?

Horstman: Yes, if we think of agency systems within the context of enterprise-wide software systems, they will evolve to become vast stores of data, upon which algorithms act on the data and then connect inbound and outbound through standard APIs.  Historically, we’ve had large end-end monolithic systems and those  systems that are successful will move to discreet, connected modules that serve a unique function such as audience predictions or media optimization or KPI attribution and optimization.  But the agency systems are no different from other enterprise-wide software applications – it is a state of continuous evolving.

Weisler: Do they need to be completely rebuilt from scratch?

Horstman: No, it’s ongoing evolution.  And the tech debt never really goes away, although the eternal optimist in me keeps hoping that tech debt will be gone just as soon as we round the next corner.




Weisler: Is there the client demand to make the required investments?

Horstman: The demand absolutely there for better marketing effectiveness across a vast and complex media ecosystem today.   So we can’t look at this as a question of how do we justify the continuing investment in agency and sell-side systems as only a cost-center.  We have to frame this as an important means for agencies to deliver a higher ROI for their clients on their media investments.  

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Optimist for Unified Cross Platform Measurement. Interview with TiVo’s Walt Horstman

Walt Horstman, SVP/GM Analytics and Advertising at TiVo, has a background steeped in data and analytics. As the original founder of the programmatic TV platform, Audience Express, his focus was, he noted, “on automating the workflow and applying advanced audience data to TV inventory in order to increase its value and provide target-ability for agencies and brands.” 

This was geared towards the MVPD’s two minutes per hour. This passion is now being applied to TiVo’s national broadcast and cable inventory. “The industry has been looking for an automated solution to use advanced audience data at scale across national broadcast and cable premium inventory,” he added. 

Charlene Weisler: What is your strategy going forward in your new job at TiVo?

Walt Horstman: After Rovi’s acquisition of TiVo last year, the company collectively focused on a strategy of using our relationships with MVPDs to build a very robust set of set top box data and that is a significant development strategy of the merged companies. That is because TiVo has a number of devices in market and also relationships with MVPDs. Rovi has a number of relationships through the guides business with a number of MVPDs. With the growth in the industry of advanced audience data and analytics measurement, we believe that there is a significant opportunity to collect this data, make it nationalized for use in the ecosystem in a number of new ways. That is a big foundational part of our strategy and goals for the future.

Charlene Weisler: I recently attended the Cynopsis Data and Measurement conference where they asked the question - How soon do you think we will get to a unified measurement for cross platform? I was surprised that 60% reported “never.” What do you think?

Walt Horstman: Really? Never? I am optimistic but it is a process. It will continue to get more efficient as we move through this together as an industry. It is not as if there is a choice not to have a unified measurement. The industry is, in fact, demanding this from both the sellers’ point of view and the agencies’ and brands’ point of view. We now have this robust pool of people-based deterministically matched households, which allows us to match those datasets against other platforms, whether it be mobile or tablets or non-linear video. I think this is a matter of having enough data from the linear TV side and then really start building the relationships across the advertising landscape to match it across other platforms. We will get there and we are starting to get into cross-platform combined planning, which becomes complex especially when we get into truly measuring reach and frequency holistically. We have more data than we ever had before and better technology applications to execute against it.

Charlene Weisler: What might the metric be to bridge it all together?

Walt Horstman: We’re going to see the metrics we are using now in linear TV become the standard. These are the advanced audience datasets that are matched against behavioral characteristics, as well as first-party data, which is a very big growth part of the business. If we take the first-party data scenario, we can apply the data in different fashions depending on the targetability of the underlying inventories. Currently, in linear TV, we target based on concentration down to the program level. In a unicast video environment, we can do direct one-to-one targeting. And of course, in digital or mobile, the same applies because it is a unicast targeting platform.

Charlene Weisler: What are some of the data applications being done now?

Walt Horstman: We have put a strategy in place that has a data layer, a software application layer and a business intelligence and analytics layer. Through this three layer stack we have assembled a best-in-class advanced advertising platform. With this platform we go to market and solve two fundamental challenges in the media industry – the first is to drive audience loyalty in the ecosystem. The data is used for promotional advertising, for program recommendation, and for advanced search capabilities – all of which drives audience loyalty within the premium inventory ecosystem. With that loyal audience, we have the second use case; to increase ad sales inventory value using advanced audience analytical data and improving the targeting and effectiveness of the campaigns. This application is both for agencies and brands and guaranteeing the delivery of the advanced audience against this premium inventory.

Charlene Weisler: Where do you see TiVo and data ecosystem three years from now?

Walt Horstman: By 2020, the majority of TV inventory will be executed using advanced audience dataset through its targeting and delivery requirements. That is where I see us in the ecosystem. I think we will see a great deal of scale at using a similar dataset across multiple media channels and a collapsing of the silos between different platforms in how they are targeted and measured. For TiVo we will be the leading provider as well as software application company in applying advanced datasets to TV and premium video inventory.  

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

ROAS vs. ROI: Painting the Right Picture

Return on ad spend, or ROAS, is used to calculate the revenue made by advertising, while taking the actual cost of advertising into account. It might seem straightforward, but it’s a hotly discussed metric these days—and for good reason. Knowing what does and doesn’t work in an advertising campaign provides insight that can have huge implications for marketing strategy.

Knowledge, as they say, is power—and having a clear understanding of return on investment (ROI) and ROAS can make all the difference.

Mapping Measurements

Let’s take a deeper look: Although often mistaken for the same thing, ROI and ROAS are very distinct metrics. “Return on investment calculates how ads contribute to an organization’s bottom line, while return on ad spend is a media-centric metric that measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns,” says Walt Horstman, senior vice president and general manager of analytics and advertising at TiVo.

Read the full article at Videa Blog.