The NYC Television Week hosted another conference that focused on Advanced Advertising in the TV space. There were several panels focusing on topics from big data, targeting advertising and programmatic TV (automated and dynamic buying of advertising space – Man. Ed.) , that will all transform the TV advertising industry. There were four panels in total and they more or less addressed the same topic: how will advertising change with the change of TV platforms?
Bulls-Eye! How Addressability is Putting Ads on Target
The panel consisted of Jeff Baumgartner (Multichannel News), Ian Greenblatt (ARRIS), Gerrit Niemeijer (Visible World), Keith Kazerman (DIRECTV), Tracey Sheppach (Precision Video), Ben K. Tatta (Cablevision Systems Corporation) and Kavita Vazirani (Comcast Cable).
They discussed how targeted advertising has finally taken hold in the pay TV industry and how the current technology is working with addressable advertising. The key is what the advertisers can gain with this approach. The real value of addressable advertising lies within the advertisers knowing the background of the consumer that is watching the ad.
The image is of an advertisement inside the NYC Television Week schedule and it describes exactly what this is all about. The idea is that advertisers only pay for ads that reach the consumers that the ad agencies are targeting. This is the dream of every advertiser – maximum result with minimum cost.
Big Data
The panel included Barry Frey (Digital Place Based Advertising Association), Bob Ivins (Rovi), Tara Maitra (TiVo), Chris Pizzurro (Canoe Ventures), Eric Schmitt (Allant) and Mike Welch (AT&T AdWorks).
As described above, the collection of behavioral and other consumer data will greatly benefit the advertiser and ad agencies in choosing the correct content for their message. These data include set-top box data and other sources, even though privacy concerns do overlap with the opportunities stemming from the use of big data. So far, multiple system operator data are mostly used for subscriber marketing and not advertising.
Will Programmatic TV Automate the Future of Advertising?
The panel included Tim Hanlon (The Vertere Group), Seth Haberman (Visible World), Mark Lieberman (Viamedia), Steve Marshall (Invision), Dave Morgan (Simulmedia) and Brian Stempeck (The Trade Desk).
As we heard in other discussions of this topic, the perspective changes with the position of the speaker in the TV industry and this panel took a look at this topic from the perspective of the advertising industry. They see programmatic TV advertising changing the heart of their industry and how business will be performed under this new paradigm.
They saw two aspects of the use of programmatic TV. First, the term describes the automation of the advertising placement process. The panel agreed that this will definitely happen in the industry, based on the potential cost savings of automating the business transactions. The second aspect relates to the addressability and focus on target audiences. This aspect will take some time to establish and will have significant impact on the complete advertising industry.
One of key issues the panel saw with the introduction of programmatic TV is the fact that, today, the demand for inventory is larger than the demand in linear TV, while the opposite is true in digital TV platforms. It is not so clear which form will win out in the industry. The typical belief is that programmatic TV will take over linear TV in the same way that it has penetrated digital platforms.
Most players are unclear if this will lead to lower, higher or the same advertising spending.
Transforming the TV AD Game
The panel consisted of Dade Hayes (Broadcasting & Cable), David Kline (Ensequence), Noah Levine (Adobe), Adam Lowy (Dish Network), Arlene Manos (AMC Networks Advertising Sales) and Seth Walters (GroupM).
The panel looked at how the TV advertisement industry will change going forward. Changes have already happened and will continue to redefine the advertisement industry. The digital TV platforms such as mobile, OTT and digital, have added accountability to TV advertising. Advertisers will expect that they get the same from linear TV in the future.
The panel all believe that better targeting is no replacement for good content.
They see money being moved from linear TV to digital platforms in the future. The optimists seem to hope that programmatic video will increase the advertisement $ being spent, while the pessimists fear that addressability will lower overall advertisement budgets. This is a good summary of how fears and opportunities rule this industry. – Norbert Hildebrand
