The same holds true for live events within our dear ad tech industry. It gives us the chance to mix and mingle our thoughts and perspectives amongst one another, with the underlying hope that the conversation surfaces a new, profound idea, rather reliant on that collision of inquisitive mindsets.  

So, what triggers these “newly” brilliant collective ideas? Questions. The kind of questions that come from one person bouncing their perspective off of someone else. The kind of questions that only happen live. 

So here are my top three thought-provoking questions, conversations and answers from Mediatel’s The Future of TV Global Event which happened at Kings Place, London earlier this month. For the sake of brevity, I have paraphrased all of the questions and answers for you. If you did not get the chance to attend, fortunately, there will be a virtual broadcast of the event on January 19-20, 2022.

1. If linear viewing is increasing among adults 65+, why are brands shying away from targeting this demographic group? Don’t they represent a major stronghold of wealth right now? 

A: [Bobi Carley, Head of Media and Diversity & Inclusion Lead at ISBA] I don’t believe they are shying away from a particular demographic, but rather trying to wrangle measurement across channels as a whole. It’s no surprise that the digital wave of the past decade (plus a global pandemic) has increased the pressure on marketing departments to hit short-term revenue goals. In effect, proving the ROI of TV compared to the quick fix of digital KPIs is a larger challenge to communicate to the executive board. 

A: [Gill Hind, COO at Enders Analysis] This issue is only further exacerbated when there is no presence of Marketing executives on the company’s board. By driving more presence in the most senior of rooms, companies can ensure they don’t lose sight of the long-term branding amidst the quick fix digital KPIs. An issue of seeing the forest through the trees. 

2. The CTV opportunity has shown to deliver a huge impact on financial markets, as investors apply multiples and high valuations on companies who are seen to receive a “slice of the CTV pie”. As of now, there are not enough pounds in the ecosystem to deliver against the forecasted growth expected by investors. What are the challenges and opportunities for two traditional players, like Channel 4 and Discovery, who are trying to grow into this space? 

A: [Katie Coteman, Vice President of Advertising and Partnerships at Discovery] It was evident that Discovery needed a stronger first party relationship with consumers, which is a similar challenge for other media owners. However, the decision between AVOD and SVOD poses challenges. For example, which one do you choose?  Do you create one product that tries to hit everyone, or different products for different markets? One large learning we’ve had is that some content drives subscribers, but does not necessarily keep them there…so there’s this continual pressure to upsell them to other content in order to get them to stay. 

A: [Veriça Djurdjevic, Chief Revenue Officer at Channel 4] In regards to content production, one key opportunity that we are currently in development with is the optimisation of content based on device type. Not only is this shown in the data whereby certain types of content are more commonly viewed on a mobile device versus the big screen, but the viewers’ engagement level is different, so we want to build content from the ground up that has the viewers’ end-device-viewing format in mind. With the diversity of content and buying options, we’ve begun to see a trend in programmatic guaranteed deals being favoured by medium and large brands who plan far ahead on traded CPMs, while the private marketplace model gives buyers an opportunity to perhaps win impressions at an advantageous cost where they can benefit instantaneously from seasonality and test new tactics. 

A: [Paola Colombo, General Manager of Adtech at Publitalia ’80] An obvious challenge that occurred at the onset of COVID was that many “traditional advertisers” had to pull back from their planned ad campaigns; however, that actually became an enormous opportunity for others to join in, which resulted in increased brand and ad diversity across the programmes. This brand and ad diversity continues to grow with the number of buying options that we offer to the market….my advice to other media owners trying to take advantage of CTV– it’s imperative that you give buyers choices, make sure your inventory is easily discoverable, and available to the right types of buyers. 

3. There is a resounding cry for measurement in this space. What rules have we learned so far and what or who is required to partner together to provide a unified solution? Note that BARB provided a 5-minute interlude pitch around their newest measurement product that combines linear and digital, inclusive of Youtube. 

A: [Tom Sherwood, Product Lead at YouTube] At the core we need a solution with universally agreed upon standards that protects user privacy and is a collaborative creation. BARB has not pulled Google into the development of their measurement product or provided access to the data, but Google is in favour of third parties developing independent measurement solutions as long as they adhere to the core principles. 

A: [Rhian Feather, Head of Media Planning at OMD] At OMD we face the challenge of normalising all of the various types of measurement solutions into a holistic planning solution. For example, BARB is at the individual level, C-Flight is at the household and Project Origin, while ambitious, has not delivered an output yet. We understand there’s crossover but the question comes down to, how do you go about comparing these to one another? As we see it, we’re trying to use the closest source of truth. Exposure to ads affects people’s reactions, not device views or other extraneous KPIs. What we want to explain to our clients is: what is the population we are trying to reach and what actions do we expect them to take from that exposure. Simple as that. And we’re eager to work with any partner who can help us deliver that promise. 

Although these three thought-provoking conversations resonated with me during the event, I urge you to view the virtual broadcast when it’s made available in January. Perhaps, you’ll be able to experience your own moment of discovery and experience a level of inspiration or revelation as I have. 

In summary, the entire event was a success, with one key overarching takeaway: it takes collaboration between brands, agencies, technology providers, data and inventory partners, and media owners to trigger the changes we all want to see in the advertising industry. I predict 2022 is going to be a year where synergistic alliances and ambitious partnerships define the solutions that are brought to market, and boy am I excited to be right in the middle of it all. 

The post The Best Questions from Mediatel’s The Future of TV Global Event appeared first on Amobee.

Let’s step back and remember how we got here. Eight years ago, ad networks began appearing out of the woodwork with varying high-impact creative offerings and channel-specific publisher networks that had privileged or sole access. They were the sandcastle-sized walled gardens of their time. So as a strategist or planner, it was a logical choice to include a variety of partners on a given plan, because each one offered differentiated data and/or inventory across display, mobile, and video.

Speed ahead a few years as traditional demand-side platforms evolved, dare I say, into the most overused term of 2015 and onwards – omnichannel – which accelerated a brand’s ability to reach the same audience in multiple environments through a single platform. This moment signaled a storm of ’consolidation’ to squall through the industry.

From a macro perspective, companies jumped at the opportunity to invest, merge or acquire properties, technology, or data access that substantiated their unique value to customers and gave them an upper-hand opportunity when it came to ’eat or be eaten’.

As the natural evolution of industry consolidation continues, this has left us with what Gartner neatly describes as the walled garden giants, media and telecom giants, advanced operational enablers, and full-stack demand-side platforms – the last of which began with the desire to maintain independent neutrality between buyers and sellers.

For a marketer, this consolidation trend brought to light how collapsing the number of partners a brand worked with – and demanding transparency of media budget spending – could eliminate the over-saturation of audiences, duplication of targeting efforts, and campaign cannibalization that had likely been occurring. With a regimented, stable framework for identifying users online across channels via third-party cookies, the advantages spoke for themselves in the cost savings attributed to this consolidation strategy.

However, some brands were extreme in selecting only a few preferred partners, which may have made sense given the expected commoditization of the DSP market. But that didn’t quite happen. What did happen was an obsessive push by tech platforms to drive differentiation by ascertaining unique data or inventory that made them a ’must buy’ – offering them the ability to reinforce their own castle walls by restricting access to other buying points or refusing to share the data outside their ecosystem.

This resulted in many brands selecting walled garden giants to consolidate with (for simplicity’s sake), leaving them at the mercy of a third-party technology partner’s roadmap. More blatantly stated, marketers had to sacrifice their own brand’s strategic vision.

But the industry is rapidly changing and coming to grips with the imperative need for more independence. Instead of ceding power to walled gardens, there is a steady drumbeat among today’s marketers to balance the scales by selecting a combination of walled gardens and independent players that give them access to the inventory they need without falling prey to exclusively ’bundled’ terms that lack the support, servicing, product innovation and freedom they need to succeed.

Don’t surrender to the fate of being a small fish in a big pond

Ironically, what this ends up looking like is a return to more partners on the media plan – circa 2015. But we’re smarter this time around. We can apply a stringent focus on cross-silo measurement to ensure the byproducts of multi-platform plans (most importantly, media waste) don’t occur.

When it comes to measurement, it boils down to data access and an unbiased source of truth. And with many partners refusing to share an advertisers’ data outside their own ecosystem, marketers are working harder than ever to play inside the lines and limitations being set. You wouldn’t put a pot of gold in someone else’s home and then ask them to tell you the number of coins left, right? So why do that with your data? Data is arguably the most valuable resource on the planet, so why lock it inside another platform’s house? Find partners that make data exportable.

With an unbiased source of truth, measurement and analytics can tell you what happened and why it happened within certain channels and environments, but it is critical to feed that exportable data into an independent attribution model to better understand the entire scope of your marketing outcomes.

All in all, mix-and-match your tech stack partners to reflect the solutions your brand needs. While it may be required to work in a walled garden world, that does not mean you need to make that your foundation or surrender to the fate of being a small fish in a big pond with no control. Your tech platforms should support and complement your own internal technology investments by offering a data-in, data-out approach.

To read the complete article by Amobee’s Head of Growth, EMEA, Piper Bledsoe, please visit The Drum.

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